DURHAM, N.C. -- The chairman of the national commission dedicated to fixing the Year 2000 computer problem says he's so confident that the turn of the century won't cause major computer problems, he's booked an airplane flight.
"I am scheduled to fly to New York Friday evening, Dec. 31, 1999, and catch the first commercial flight back to Washington Saturday morning," said John Koskinen, chairman of President Clinton's Year 2000 commission said Friday.Koskinen said he's flying to show there should be no widespread problems or social unrest caused by computers clicking over from 1999 to 2000.
Still, there will be some problems, he said. "No one can guarantee that all the systems will work," Koskinen said.
Many computer systems are programmed to recognize only the last two digits in a date, so 2000, for instance, might be misinterpreted as 1900. The problem has spawned frantic work at businesses and government agencies to install corrective measures.
Koskinen said 61 percent of the federal government's "mission critical systems" are already fixed for the Y2K problem.
Federal Aviation Administration computer systems, once considered behind the curve in getting ready for Y2K, are 95 percent fixed, Koskinen said. He said if there are problems, controllers can slow down the traffic flow and use a backup system.