Year 2000 Computing Crisis: FAA Must Act Quickly to Prevent Systems Failures

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Year 2000 Computing Crisis: FAA Must Act Quickly to Prevent Systems Failures

We appreciate the opportunity to testify on the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) efforts to address the Year 2000 problem a situation in which systems could malfunction or fail because the '00,' in the year 2000 may be indistinguishable from the '00,' in 1900 unless these systems are modified or replaced. With only 696 days remaining until January 1, 2000, federal agencies must act now to ensure that critical systems continue to operate. There may be no more urgent federal information systems priority. Hundreds of critical FAA computer systems make its operations possible; without these specialized systems, FAA could not effectively control air traffic, target airlines for inspection, or provide up to date weather conditions to pilots and air traffic controllers. However, many of these systems could fail to perform as needed when using dates after 1999, unless proper date related calculations can be assured. The implications of FAA's not meeting this immovable deadline are enormous and could affect hundreds of thousands of people through customer inconvenience, increased airline costs, grounded or delayed flights, or degraded levels of safety.