Software Glitch Moves Opening To August

The new control tower at Stewart International Airport (SWF) in New York was supposed to go online Friday... but it didn't. Seems a software problem has prevented the transfer of equipment between the old tower and the new.

Now, the FAA says it'll be August before the new tower is up and running... sporting a brand new radar system.

That doesn't sit well with Congresswoman Sue Kelly. She's furious at the FAA's refusal to move the Terminal Automated Radar Display and Information System (TARDIS) from the old tower -- as the airport's management apparently wants to do.

"We don’t feel that we have all the equipment that we need," airport spokeswoman Tanya Vanasse told the Hudson Valley News. "It seems, from what we can understand, and see and hear, that it’s really just a matter of moving the equipment from one location to another. So we’re hoping that the FAA will see clear to doing that for us."

Kelly added even if TARDIS stayed put, the FAA could use the old tower's 1990-vintage ASR-9 radar in the new building.

But the FAA seems adamant... and Kelly says this is the same bureaucratic mess she had to fight in 1999 to get the TARDIS system installed in the old tower in the first place.

"Now, over six years and a brand new tower later, Stewart officials and controllers are faced with the same bureaucratic obstacles to the installation of vital security equipment," Kelly said.

FMI: www.faa.gov, http://suekelly.house.gov/