Pacific Islands Monthly
The news magazine of the South Pacific · since 1930
Pacific Islands Monthly, 1 January 1999Vol. 68 No. 13

World's planes could be

p. 13 · Read in the full issue

Page 1313

grounded by Y2K

PACIFIC airlines are still considering what strategy to take come 2000 after warnings that the millennium bug could threaten aviation

safety.

France’s finance and economy minister, Dominique Strauss- Kahn, has said that fear of air chaos caused by the Year 2000 computer bug could ground all of the world’s aircraft on January 1, 2000.

If such a decision is made, “it will be a world-wide decision after co-ordination with all the civil aviation authorities,” French secretary of State for industry, Christian Pierret, added.

While updating air control computer systems to overcome the bug - which may result in older machines mistaking the year 2000 for 1900 - is being followed “very closely”, malfunctions could still happen, Pierret warned.

The two men were speaking at a press conference on November 26 on France’s entry into the Third Millennium. ■

Digitised by the National Library of Australia · OCR text via GLAM Workbench · uncorrected OCR, expect errors
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