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It requests an identity used for air traffic control purposes. Military mode 3 and civil mode A are the same interrogation mode (hence often referred toĪs 3/A). Individual aircraft airframe (which is a number set in the aircraft, usually before it takes off). Military mode 1 is usually used to indicate role, mission or type of aircraft (hence severalĪircraft may give the same mode 1 reply value). Table 1: uplink-formats in Mark Ⅹ Standard
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Mode C is used to extract the pressure altitude mode C value (or true altitude if below the transition altitude). The commonly used mode before the Mode S was introduced. Provides 4096 ID codes for civil/military use. Normally used to identify an individual aircraft airframe. Military mode 2 provides 4096 ID codes for military use (as for mode A). However, this mode itself is not in common use in a normal peacetime environment. Normally, the 32 codes could be used to indicate role/mission/type. curfew for arrivals, said it was difficult to know how many flights had been affected.Military mode 1 is used to support 32 military identification codes (although 4096 mode 1 codes could also be used). Ten flights that were supposed to land in Los Angeles were rerouted to San Francisco International Airport, where they sat on the runway for several hours, said Dennis Nevis, an airport duty manager.Īn official at John Wayne Airport in Orange County, which has a 10 p.m. Several flights headed to Southern California were diverted to northern California airports, including San Jose, San Francisco and Oakland, which are controlled by a different air traffic control center. A plane carrying reporters who accompany the president was not so fortunate and was stranded in Las Vegas. President Bush was in the Las Vegas area earlier in the day, but Air Force One took off for Andrews Air Force Base, near Washington, before the problem developed, Ms. "I saw all these planes on the same level as us, out over the ocean," said a passenger, Joan Ireland. Passengers from a plane arriving from Hawaii said they had had no idea anything was wrong, although several remarked that it had sseemed odd that so many planes were landing in rapid sucession. The bustle of the airport resumed its noisy rhythm, as announcements started up again on the public address systems and disembarking passengers appeared bearing luggage. Zeidan said, "and there were all these rumors flying around."Īs airlines were given the all-clear to use the Los Angeles airport again around 9 p.m., airplanes began appearing on the horizon, their lights shining in orderly rows as the lined up to land. Walaa Zeidan, 20, had been ready to board an Air Canada plane back home to Victoria, British Columbia, when she and other passengers were told there was a communications problem through much of the West Coast. Los Angeles International Airport was a beehive of activity as travelers tried to decide whether to change their plans, or wait it out. In Albuquerque, passengers waited for hours before they could leave their planes as the authorities waited in vain for the technical problem to be solved. The situation disrupted airports throughout the region. The aviation agency did not divert any planes to other airports, but some airlines chose to do so rather than risk having their planes stranded in the region for the duration of the problem. Brown said she did not know the cause of the failure. Airplanes bound for the area that had not taken off were held on the ground, she said. The Los Angeles center handles all long-distance, high-altitude traffic in a territory that includes the airports in Los Angeles, San Diego and Las Vegas.Ībout 800 planes were in the air at the time, and control was assumed by the Southern California Terminal Radar Approach Control, which usually handles lower-altitude traffic and traffic that is on approach or departure from airports, and the Albuquerque center, Ms. The system was restored before midnight Eastern time, but by that time, many flights had been canceled and other planes were so late that their next flights would also be disrupted. "They can still see everything on radar, but they can't talk to the airplanes," she said. Brown, a spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration in Washington. The Los Angeles Air Route Traffic Control Center in Palmdale, one of 20 such centers in the continental United States, lost its primary radio system about 8 p.m. 15 - Hundreds of airliners around the country were held on the ground for hours on Tuesday night when the air traffic control center that handles long-distance flights in Southern California lost voice communications with 800 planes in flight because of a technical problem.
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