Cable mishap causes communications problems for air traffc controllers.

[SlGlNT]

Air traffic controllers had to switch to backup radio frequencies to contact planes approaching Logan International Airport for two hours today, after a technician cut the wrong communication cable, a Federal Aviation spokesman said.

The FAA delayed some planes as a precaution, but no one was in danger at any point, said Jim Peters, a spokesman for FAA in New England.

Air traffic controllers in the Merrimack, N.H. control center, where planes are guided on their final approach to Boston, had to switch to the backup frequencies from about 11 a.m. to about 1 p.m., until the cable was fixed, he said.

Technicians were working on the 19th floor of the air traffic control tower at Logan when someone inadvertently cut the cable, Peters said. He said the Merrimack center was affected by the mishap in Boston because "everything is on a network."

As a precaution, about two dozen planes headed to Boston were delayed on the ground at their departure airports, and a backup radar system was also used, Peters said.

"We always have backup systems," he said. "We went to the backup."

Peters said the agency would scrutinize what happened, with an eye to preventing such mishaps in the future.

-The Boston Globe
December 4, 07 03:52 PM

 

[cpuerror]

Sounds like someone is going to be looking for a job.

 

[crayon]

Sounds like someone is going to be looking for a job.

Naw. About the only way you can get fired from a gov job is to pop a drug test and/or misappropate US gov property.

Now if this person was a contractor .. that is a different story.