By silicon.com, 30 March 2004 15:00
NEWS 30.03.99: The sky over Britain will be safe to fly through after the millennium, according to the National Air Traffic Services (Nats).
The aviation authority claims that the systems used to patrol the airspace used by 5,000 flights daily are fully millennium compliant. It said testing work on its systems was completed on nearly 700 operational air traffic control and 170 non-operational systems.
30.09.04: Although the fear and uncertainty that surrounds flying in the post-11 September world makes Y2K paranoia seem a little embarrassing, it really was a huge deal at the time.
Serious concerns about the date change that had many fearing for the robustness of booking systems and worrying about in-flight computers struggling with automated procedures were based on reality. Those who feared planes would drop from the sky on the stroke of midnight were largely kidding themselves.
A lot of theorising about worst-case scenarios - as is our wont - occurred and much of it helped to ensure potential pitfalls were avoided. However, a lot of scaremongering also went on in the run up to the millennium.
Power stations were going to explode, weapons systems were going to deploy all their missiles, radio alarm clocks were going to stop working - in short, the world was going to end.
Y2K ensured an employment boom for the IT industry - raising questions about who exactly was putting forward the very worst of the worst-case scenarios.
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