FAA Reports Y2K Progress, Denver End-To-End Test

<B> FAA Reports Y2K Progress, Denver End-To-End Test</B>

By Barbara Cook

<I>Washington</I> - The Federal Aviation Administration reported last week that Y2K repair work has been successfully completed on 88 percent of its computer systems and the remainder of its systems will be Y2K compliant by June 30.

FAA officials sought to dispel concerns that it is behind in making needed repairs to the nation's air traffic control system. Ray Long, director of the agency's Y2K office, said that of FAA's 423 mission-critical systems, 370 now are in compliance.

The Office of Management and Budget had set a government-wide compliance date of March 30 after FAA had established its own June 30 date to complete needed Y2K repairs. This prompted federal watchdogs to list FAA as consistently tardy in meeting the government's objectives.

As the March 30 deadline for federal agencies to report their Y2K compliance passed, DOT said 85 percent of its mission-critical systems had achieved compliance and the remaining systems are on schedule for compliance in the coming weeks. FAA, the U.S. Coast Guard and the Bureau of Transportation Statistics were the only parts of DOT not reporting full compliance by March 30.

A key test of FAA's Y2K repair work was scheduled to take place in the pre-dawn hours on April 10 when the agency planned to check every air traffic system at Denver International Airport used to control aircraft through each phase of flight, including takeoffs and landings. This end-to-end test, which is beyond the individual system testing that FAA already has completed, was to involve the tracking of aircraft with computer clocks set forward to Dec. 31, 1999 and rolled over to Jan. 1, 2000.

Results of the Denver test were to be forwarded to FAA's Tech Center in Atlantic City, N.J., where they will be compared with the actual traffic recorded at the time of the test. The agency was to use a backup tracking system for the test and passenger aircraft were not to be affected. FAA would, however, fly one of its own aircraft during the test to capture more results. FAA officials also said that by June 1 they will have completed site visits to the top 50 U.S. airports to check for Year 2000 computer preparedness and by Aug. 1 will have inspected the top 150 airports.

The White House, meanwhile, reported that by March 30, 92 percent of the federal government's "essential" computer systems had cleared all Y2K hurdles. John Koskinen, the executive official overseeing all federal Y2K efforts, said there likely will be countries unable to accept commercial airline flights when the date rolls over on Jan. 1, 2000. The International Civil Aviation Organization is collecting information on international airport Y2K preparedness and has set July 1 to publish a status report. The State Department likely will coordinate dissemination of that information to U.S. airlines and travelers.