Computer glitch causes 8-hour delay at Piarco Transport Minister Arnold Piggot has ordered an investigation into an early= =20 morning shutdown of the computer systems at the Piarco Airport terminal=20 which led to a backlog and many disgruntled travellers. Piggot reported=20 that, at 12.03 yesterday morning, the terminals that display the arrival=20 and departure times for flights froze and the computers that issue baggage= =20 tags and boarding passes ceased to operate. The situation was rectified by= =20 8 a.m. and passengers were allowed to board their flights. =93My information= =20 is that this is the first time that this has happened with the system and=20 you would appreciate that computer systems are very delicate pieces of=20 equipment and malfunctions can indeed occur. Whether this occurred because= =20 of the overloading of the system this morning given the volumes that had to= =20 be processed and given the amount of terminals that had to be signed on is= =20 yet to be known by me,=94 Piggot told reporters at Balisier House where he= =20 had attended a PNM special general council meeting. He will receive a=20 report from the airport's general manager today. BWIA=92s director of=20 corporate communications, Clint Williams, told the Express that, while=20 unfortunate, the shutdown was not a cause for major concern. =93It was largely a software glitch. Simply put, we had too many gateways=20 open at the same time. We had a bottleneck of info which caused the system= =20 to shut down,=94 he said, adding that the system had actually shut down to= =20 protect itself. He said the information technology staff of BWIA had already analysed the=20 problem, and did not anticipate a recurrence of the malfunction. Williams=20 said the malfunction did not mean that the system could not handle the=20 rigours of the seasonal rush of Carnival travellers, and added that no=20 information was lost or damaged. =93We=92re confident that we=92ve learnt= from=20 the experience, and we'll be ready to deal with the system if the=20 circumstances arise again,=94 he added. =97with reporting by Kayode James (Trinidad Express) The owner of Roger's Trinbago Site: Roj (Roger James) *************************************************** Trinbago site: http://www.tntisland.com ICQ: ICQ # 15836110 ICQ Pager: mailto:15836110@pager.icq.com escape email #!1 mailto:ejames@escape.ca yahoo email #2: mailto:triniroj@yahoo.com Yahoo Pager: triniroj Caribbean Brass & Soca Connection Group on Yahoo: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/caribsocabrass Caribbean Brass & Soca Connection Club Website http://www.tntisland.com/caribbeansocabrassconnection/ ******************************************************* Steel Expressions Orch http://www.escape.ca/~ejames/se/ email #1: mailto:steelexpressions@yahoo.com email #2: mailto:steelexpressions@home.com ******************************************************* The Trinbago Site of the Week: (NLCB) http://www.nlcb.co.tt/ (National Lotteries Control Board) courtesy of Roj Trinbago Website & TnT Web Directory Roj's Trinbago Website: http://www.tntisland.com TnT Web Directory: http://195.224.187.36/ *********************************************************