Short read: Air traffic control in the US still uses Windows 95 and floppy disks

Those of who spend our business lives on an aircraft vritually everyday of our lives were left doubly disturbed by the tragic crash in Ahmedabad of a colossal aircraft that we all assumed was un-crashable. Our perturbation has been heightened by what we have seen in America over the past couple of months where air traffic controllers are shutting down airports because their outdated systems can no longer see where the aircraft are!

This article in TechZine uses material from Ars Technica to explain the crazy situation in the control towers of the world’s largest air traffic network: “Most traffic control towers and control centers in the US still use technology from the last century. This is not necessarily a problem as long as it continues to function properly. Air traffic controllers sometimes still use paper strips to track aircraft movements. They also exchange information via diskettes on computers running Windows 95, which has been in use since 1995.

Professor Sheldon Jacobson of the University of Illinois, who researches aviation risks, says the system works surprisingly well. But he adds that modernization is necessary. The advocacy group Modern Skies is campaigning for the system to be updated.

Although these old systems may have unintentionally protected against global disruptions such as the CrowdStrike crisis in 2024, FAA officials say that 51 of the 138 systems are now unsustainable due to outdated functionality. There is also a lack of spare parts.”

In case you thought this was crazy, Mels Dees from TechZine has more bad news for you: “…the FAA is not the only organization still working with floppy disks. In San Francisco, the train control system still operates on DOS, utilizing 5.25-inch floppy disks. Due to budget constraints, replacement is not possible before 2030. Japan has also been struggling for years to modernize its government registration systems, which still use floppy disks.”

And, by the way, there is no near term resolution in sight. So let’s all wish each other the very best when we fly next to USA: “The Department of Transportation has drawn up a four-year plan to complete the modernization, but experts doubt whether this is feasible given the scale and complexity of the project. Jacobson called the timetable “unrealistically optimistic” in the NPR interview, partly because no cost estimate has yet been presented.”

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