Northwest Airlines Telecom Outage Causes Chaos, Investigations Underway

Tuesday's telecommunications failure at Northwest Airlines' Eagan, Minnesota, computer center caused widespread disruptions to the airline's worldwide operations, resulting in the cancellation of over 130 flights and delays to hundreds more. The outage, which lasted over four hours, was caused by a contractor cutting a fiber-optic telephone cable serving the Eagan center, severing communication between the center and Northwest's flight dispatchers, weight-and-balance experts, and pilots.

Key Takeaways:

• The outage was caused by a contractor cutting a U S West fiber-optic telephone cable serving the Eagan computer center, severing communication between the center and Northwest's flight dispatchers, weight-and-balance experts, and pilots.
• The cable cut occurred around 2 p.m. Tuesday, causing delays or cancellations for hundreds of Northwest flights throughout the company's worldwide system.
• Northwest relied on a single telephone company, U S West, to provide service, which failed when the contingency system was not adequate.
• The Minnesota Commerce Department will investigate "quality of service" issues involved in the telephone service disruption.
• The Minnesota Department of Public Safety will investigate possible violations of the state's "call before you dig" law.
• U S West said they intend to take legal action against those responsible for the damage.
• The damage at the site of the cable cut was so severe that a U S West investigation had not been completed by Wednesday.
• Telecommunications industry officials noted that a major problem with redundant telephone lines is that they eventually must converge on a single customer location, thus creating a potential single point of failure.
• Part of the problem appears to be that there are no firm rules about such telephone installations.

Statistics:

• Over 130 flights were canceled due to the outage.
• Hundreds of Northwest flights were delayed throughout the company's worldwide system.
• Service was restored to Northwest by 5:25 p.m. Tuesday.
• Minnesota Public Utilities Commission did not receive any complaints against U S West in connection with Tuesday's cable cut.
• The Commerce Department can assess monetary penalties against telephone companies that violate state telecommunications rules governing "adequacy of service" or "reasonableness of service."

Sources:

• Staff writer Tony Kennedy, "Northwest Airlines telecom outage causes chaos, investigators are on the case," Minneapolis Star Tribune, [date missing]
• Northwest Airlines, statement, [no publication date]
• U S West, statement, [no publication date]
• McLeodUSA, statement, [no publication date]
• Minnesota Commerce Department, press release, [no publication date]
• Minnesota Public Safety Department, press release, [no publication date]