HERNDON, Va. — Man's first century of flight drew to a close Friday, and the airplanes that now carry anyone anywhere in the globe within a day's time flew on unaffected by the Year 2000 computer bug.

There also were no major reports of problems with the earthbound computer equipment that makes air travel safe, from radar systems that track planes in the sky to runway lights that help them return to the ground.

The Federal Aviation Administration reported momentary problems with printers in transoceanic air traffic control centers in New York, Oakland, Calif., and Anchorage, Alaska. The agency said controllers relayed information by telephone, and there was no effect on flights.

Overseas, feared breakdowns in foreign aviation did not materialize, although entire systems remained to be tested because several airlines from Asia to Europe grounded their planes on New Year's Eve.

U.S. carriers, which had cut back on their already light holiday schedule, also braced for a test Sunday and Monday. Leisure travelers were returning home from millennium celebrations, and business travelers were headed out for the first work week in the new year.

U.S. and Canadian airlines alone spent $700 million readying for the challenge; globally the figure was pegged at $2.3 billion.

Even with the work, there was lingering concern about baggage systems, terminal lighting and other non-safety equipment at the nation's 565 major airports as midnight approached.

A critical milestone passed uneventfully at 7 p.m. EST, which is midnight Greenwich Mean Time or Universal Coordinated Time. In aviation circles, that is also known as "Zulu" time, the standard used to track planes as they cross time zones, receive weather information from forecasters and are scheduled for fresh crews and supplies.

Similarly, no apparent problems were evident five hours later, as the East Coast reached midnight. FAA high-altitude radar systems tracked 548 planes as the new year arrived.

While jetliners have less than a handful of date-sensitive systems that would be affected as 1999 turned to 2000, the Federal Aviation Administration spent $368 million fixing 152 "mission critical" computer systems to ensure they were not affected.

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Systems that oversee high-altitude flight received a precautionary patch as late as Thursday morning.

Without the repairs, experts were concerned that older computer software and hardware designed to recognize years in a two-digit format might malfunction as "99" became "00," which some systems might misconstrue as the start of 1900, instead of 2000.

Monte Belger, the FAA's senior air traffic control official, said the printer problems occurred in systems used to relay communications from airplanes to the FAA. He said that on a normal day, the FAA receives about 25 similar reports. As of 9 p.m. Friday, it had 12.

In one other incident, runway lights at the airport in Lake Charles, La., also went out about midnight Zulu time. Investigators later determined that a taxi knocked down a nearby power pole about that time.

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