Glitch fixed in baggage-sorting system at JFK

A network hardware failure caused the malfunction in the baggage conveyor belt at American Airlines

By Linda Rosencrance

July 31, 2008 12:00 PM ET

Comments

Top Stories

Computerworld - New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport was back to normal today after a glitch was fixed in American Airlines' baggage-sorting conveyor belt that caused at least 25 flight delays, an airline spokesman said.

Initially, American's parent company, AMR Corp., said the malfunction yesterday was in software that controlled the baggage-sorting conveyor belt in American's bag room at JFK.

However, airline spokesman Tim Wagner said today that the glitch was caused by a hardware issue involving the network between the computer software that controls the sorting function and the baggage conveyor belts. Wagner said the software was working, the conveyors were working, but some of the network hardware was failing.

The problem was resolved before the first flights took off this morning, he said.

American's baggage handlers had to manually sort passengers' bags yesterday, and many bags didn't make it on board before flights took off. American informed passengers so they could decide whether to board their flights. If they decided to keep their travel arrangements, the airline said their bags would be delivered to their destinations as soon as possible.

"We have the remaining bags from last night, several hundred I'm told, in cargo containers and ready to be put on the flights to their destinations. We should have those out today," he said. "Everything else is back to normal at JFK today."

Read more about networking and internet in Computerworld's Networking and Internet Knowledge Center.

Comment Recommend Digg Twitter ShareThis

Email Print Send Feedback Reprints

Jump to comments

glitch

Additional Resources

WHITE PAPER

EFD vs. HDD - What You Need to Know

Enterprise flash drives provide a new Tier 0 storage layer capable of delivering high I/O performance at a very low latency. Proper use of EFDs in an Oracle environment can deliver increased performance compared to fibre channel drives. Read the recommendations for identification of the best DB components for EFDs.

WHITE PAPER

Gartner Research Report: Magic Quadrant for Application Delivery Controllers, 2009

The market for products to improve the delivery of application software over networks remains dynamic and innovative. Vendors focused on solving enterprises' most-pressing application problems have become the top players.

WHITE PAPER

Eight Criteria for Server Load Balancing

Server load balancers are a simple yet highly effective means to scale an application environment while ensuring its availability. Today's solutions should also address application performance and security. Read about the top eight criteria you should consider when choosing a server load balancer and how Citrix NetScaler meets those requirements.

What People Are Saying

0 comments | Add new

See all comments (0) | Add new

White Papers & Webcasts

Quantifying the Business Value of VMware View
Learn why you should invest in a centralized virtual desktop.

BIRT for the Enterprise: Solve Your Data Visualization Needs with Open Source BI
Register now!

High Performance for Integrating Massive Data Volumes
Processing very large data sets provides unique constraints, especially when time windows available for this processing are shrinking. This Technical White Paper presents...

Customer Video: HP Pelzer
Watch Now

Gartner - With Windows 7's Arrival, Plan Migrations Now
Download Now

3 Minutes with Free Tool Can Save Thousands!
Watch Now!

Dell Proconsult: Windows 7 Readiness Assessment FAQ
Download Now

Hosted Security Services: Why it make budget and security sense in today's economy
Watch Now

Oracle Accelerate - Not Just Smart but Timely
Download Now!

The Workday User Experience Video
Watch Workday's Creative Director, Scott Lietzke, discuss the business-centered design philosophy at Workday.

All White Papers | All Webcasts