Sorry about your $500 ticket, but you will not reach your destination as planned.

Surprise, Surprise the FAA screwed up again. This time they only delayed 600+ flights. MSNBC News Reports:

U.S. aviation officials said most flights around the country were back to normal Wednesday, after a software malfunction delayed hundreds of flights on Tuesday....The Northeast was hardest hit by the delays prompted by a glitch at a Hampton, Georgia, facility that processes flight plans for the eastern half of the U.S. The FAA said the source of the computer software malfunction was a "packet switch" that "failed due to a database mismatch." The FAA, for its part, said it would work to make sure the problem doesn't happen again. Another FAA spokeswoman, Kathleen Bergen in Atlanta, said there were no safety issues and officials were still able to speak to pilots on planes on the ground and in the air. According to the FAA, 646 flights had been delayed as a direct result of the problem. In a 24-hour period the FAA processes more than 300,000 flight plans in the U.S., the agency said.... Bergen said the problem that occurred Tuesday afternoon involved a failure in a communication link that transmits flight plan data from the Georgia facility to a similar facility in Salt Lake City. As a result, the Salt Lake City facility in Utah was having to process those flight plans, causing delays in planes taking off. She said the delays were primarily affecting departing flights. Spitaliere said there were some problems with arriving flights as well.(August 27, 2008)

How does this happen? A Database mismatch, why are they only running one database. How about a clone database that duplicates instantaneously for back-up purposes, but that would make to much since to rational human beings. How are there no safety issues, if for a period you do not know where a plane might be? I understand that years before the development of computers and GPS systems, control towers were able to control air traffic fine. With 100's of planes in the air simultaneously this is dangerous. The FAA clearly isn't doing their job.