Steps Already Taken: New Laptops, More Officers Already
Arrived
It just goes to show, there's nothing quite like a total network
system failure -- such as the one to hit Los Angeles International
Airport last month, stranding some 17,000 international passengers
-- to light a fire under plans to overhaul that system.
By Christmas -- or even as early as Thanksgiving -- the entire
customs computer network system at LAX will be redone, said Ken
Ritchhart, assistant commissioner in the Office of Information and
Technology with US Customs and Border Protection. The upgrade will
be complete with new workstations, network switches, routers and
cables, and even a new satellite backup system, according to the
Los Angeles Times.
"Everything has been moved up," Ritchhart said. "We recognize
the fact that having folks sit on airplanes for hours is not
acceptable, so we have to look at new procedures . . . to make sure
it doesn't happen again."
Nearly all the equipment due to be replaced has reached the end
of its life expectancy, Ritchhart said. The workstations are about
four years old, the network switches and routers six years old and
cables about 20 years old.
As ANN reported, the US
Customs and Border Protection system went down around 1400 PDT
August 11. The resulting delays forced some planes to sit on the
tarmac for hours... so long, in fact, that crews were kept busy
refilling fuel tanks for the aircrafts' auxiliary power units.
The cause was eventually
traced to a single malfunctioning local area network card. There
was no backup system available.
The fast track effort will bring the $15.3 million dollar
project to a close about nine months ahead of schedule, according
to Ritchhart. The technical systems of the nation's 104 major
airports and international border crossings will see the
upgrade.
"The tangible steps that have been taken, they're encouraging,
and, frankly, they're impressive," said Paul Haney, deputy
executive director for airports and security for LAX operator Los
Angeles World Airports.
"We actually have tangible evidence that this is being taken
very seriously and there's a commitment to ensure that there is
never a repeat of this nature."
Airport officials received 100 laptop computers a full week
sooner than promised and 30 more customs officials have been
allocated to help speed up passenger processing.