Spy plane causes air traffic chaos, says FAA

[mhm]

A spy plane was responsible for a computer glitch that caused air-traffic chaos in western US states last week, the Federal Aviation Administration has revealed.

The meltdown occurred when software incorrectly thought the plane was on a collision course with other aeroplanes.

The system was overloaded as it struggled to plot new courses for affected aircraft.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-27292440

[viking9]

What a pity they didn't ask someone with PlanePlotter what it really was. 

[satcom]

Not quite sure what went wrong with their planning but...

This looks like  80-1071
He climbed to about 22500 feet stayed there a few minutes then descended...flight was done and dusted in just over an hour.

Perhaps ATC were expecting him to climb to FL600 plus taking him out of their hair....but instead , looks like it was just a short test flight.
He was on 4454 all through the flight  1900-2000 ish GMT , that ties in roughly with the 1400 local in the US reports

[edgy]

I read where it wasn't so much the plane, but the number of waypoints in the flightplan. Which he must have drawn a path through the most dense part of the airspace :-)  Then as the computers tried to project the conflicts, it ran out of memory.

Back in my day, the squawks 44XX were reserved for aircraft at or above 60k. You didn't switch to that code until you got there.  I used to keep a symbol reserved for 44XX squawks and it was mostly U-2 and every once in awhile an SR-71 would zip across the screen.

The FAA would have been smart to just buy the European system.  The homebrew stuff is a nightmare.  Lowest bidder, delays, poop...

[satcom]

Thats interesting about the sqwk code Edgy.
The more reports I read the more confusing it gets

The archives for the time period show only one U2 in the air [  sending mode S]

Its well to the north of LAX

Perhaps ATC saw 4454 on screen and assumed he was a hi fly , then noticed the lower alt readout at Mode S , and assumed his altitude was wrong as it conflicted with the SSR code.

Of course if he was non Mode S at the time...then its anyones guess

[edgy]

I wonder if the NASA U-2 is the only one with Mode-S?

Another story says the U-2 flight plan was for VFR on Top. This must have been an error, because that is generally used below 18k. The designation however caused the computers to calculate conflicts at all altitudes, and since he was orbiting it made a real mess.

The person inputting the flight plan was probably reassigned :-)

[satcom]

Both NASA's U2s are Mode S AFAIK but neither were in the air on the 30th
https://airbornescience.nasa.gov/aircraft_detailed_cal/2014-04-30?aircraft_id=4&=Apply