Airport Radars Failed at JFK, Laguardia, and Newark

Thanks for the support Xris -- it's actually not sunspots, because we're at the solar minimum right now, so no sunspots to speak of. I'd love it if Jen or Jake would post about Mercury Retrograde and link to all the stories over the last 48 hours so more people could get a sense of this. Just to put it out there...

I agree with Stefanie, and was going to say the exact SAME thing: all of these "crashes" in computer and satellite systems lately is all connected. (only I thought it could be Sun spots. ??) But Mercury going retro is a likely theory also!!

I agree with Stefanie, and was going to say the exact SAME thing: all of these "crashes" in computer and satellite systems lately is all connected. (only I thought it could be Sun spots. ??) But Mercury going retro is a likely theory also!!

Yeah I thought that was pretty weak of them. I will admit that it probably did belong in AskMe, but still, maybe a little too quick on that one. I have certainly posted worse that were never closed. MeFi really pisses me off sometimes, seems like most of the people on there perpetually wake up on the wrong side of the bed and have that holier-than-thou attitude. That one person was like "i find it more interesting that I live in New York City and havent heard of any of these things" almost gave me the impression that he/she thought I was making this stuff up!

why did metafilter close the thread to new comments so quickly? they are crushing freedom of expresion - so wrong. these are people that know nothing about astrology and its links to the collective unconscious and quantum physics and bash it anyway. they are a lot more close-minded than they'd ever dare admit. the energies are so subtle that they're not measurable, but that doesn't mean it's not happening! we can't see neutrinos -- but does this mean they don't exist? there IS somethingn to this, we just don't understand the mechanism yet.

Every MeFi comment tearing you to bits is accurate.

I hate to do this on here, but there are a ton of comments since I posted the thread like 10 minutes ago, and I'm getting absolutly torn to bits.

http://www.metafilter.com/mefi/49833

Gotta say, this Mercury in Retrograde thing is absolutely TRUE. I had always dismissed it as a flaky notion, but it is truly uncanny how many times computers have crashed, I've not met up with friends, my cell battery inexplicably died...only to have someone tell me "mercury is in retrograde."

Too coincidental to ignore...

I began a thread over at Metafilter on it.

Um, what's "mercury retrograde"?

so maybe those mob guys on trial getting held up in traffic was not BS after all.

people, people, people --

in the last two days we've had the above event, a train derailment, a system-wide cingular failure, a major metrocard machine issue, plus problems over the past week or so with metrocards in turnstyles. how much is it going to take to get a discussion of mercury retrograde going?

Mercury retrograde times are notorious for:

• Communications go awry - phone calls, letters, emails, faxes, conversations are delayed, misinterpreted, blocked. Recheck everything like appointment times, spelling, wording, the words you say.

• Anticipate detours - memory lapses, confusion, failing to listen, failing to confirm, negotiation failures, changing of plans.

• Avoid signing documents, contracts if possible. You can wait 3 weeks, hopefully.

• Expect travel delays, car trouble, delayed plane schedules, reservations that suddenly becoming "missing", transportation difficulties of all kinds.

• Expect problems with messages, books, letters, magazines, documents, neighbors and the near environment.

• BACK up your computer files! This is the time the screen goes blank and there is nothing there!

• Expect the phone lines, cable lines, power lines to have problems.

please, for the love of god, discuss.

A somewhat simplified answer: New York Center controls most of the airspace in the NYC area and gives instructions to planes flying over a certain altitude that are going through the airspace - if landing at any of the area airports or just passing trhough on the way elsewhere.

It should also be noted that there was a problem yesterday at O'Hare in Chicago.

I'm pretty sure this is how it works: each airport has individual control towers which coordinate the take-off/landing in their immediate airspace. But once in the air, the airplanes are handed off to New York Center which coordinates the aircraft in its' area. Because of the complexity of the local area, the amount of air traffic, NY Center is pretty busy.

Normally aircraft transmit its' ID, airspeed and other details such as altitude. What has to happen is that the pilots and NY Center have to do is verbally confer back and forth, to keep track of where they are.

It seems like their's one main computer system that powers the area's airports' radars. I'm hoping there's a backup for the backup.

I know La Guardia used to use JFK's Radar, but Newark? Seems far apart to share Radar...