Because of the software bug, more than 200 flights were delayed: do not fly above 65535 feet

The reconnaissance aircraft of the US Air Force caused a serious malfunction in the California air traffic control center software, which resulted in delaying the flight of hundreds of civilian flights to several airports in the southwestern region of the United States and landing planes that went unplanned to the region, reports NBC News .

Although the official agencies did not provide exhaustive information about the reasons for the failure, but unofficial sources say it’s about the new traffic monitoring system that was installed at some California airports and which mistakenly tried to prevent an airplane from colliding with commercial flights.

The U-2 flew at an altitude of more than 60,000 feet (more than 18 km) above sea level and could in no way cause problems to civilian vessels at a much lower height. He has been flying over California and other regions at such a height for decades, and never had problems. But recently, airports installed new flight monitoring software as part of the ERAM (En Route Automation Modernization) project, the project cost was $ 2.1 billion. Most likely, the new system mistakenly interpreted the U-2 flight altitude and considered that it could affect other flights.
')
There is an assumption that the cause of software failure was the ability of the U-2 to fly at a height above 65,535 feet. However, the U-2 transmitter is capable of reporting arbitrary coordinates of its height to ground stations. By default, it is programmed to the maximum value of FL600 (60,000 feet), and even if the plane flies much higher, they will still transmit the value of FL600.

Another version is that this was some kind of new modification of the aircraft with a new transmitter. Perhaps he nevertheless delivered a height of more than 65,535 feet to the base, and the new ERAM software did not respond well. But thousands of passengers who missed their flights are no better off.