Nellis says its planes, base are secure

Diana Sahagun

Friday, Dec. 10, 1999 | 11:13 a.m.

No, planes won't be falling out of the sky when the clock strikes 12 on New Year's Eve, according to Nellis Air Force Base officials.

Contrary to the popular made-for-TV movie "Y2K: The Movie," there won't be mass chaos in the skies because, Nellis officials say, they have been working for the past two years to make sure the millennium bug doesn't rear its ugly head.

Nellis Air Force Base is 99.7 percent compliant, with the remaining fraction of a percentage not "mission critical," Nellis Y2K representative Tina Whatley said.

"As far as our Nellis units, we don't plan on having any aircraft flying (on New Year's Eve)," she said. "We're not concerned about anything. We're ready to go."

The Y2K problem may occur in some old computers because they might fail when the date changes to 2000. Because old programs were written to only understand the last two digits of a year, such programs could read "00" as 1900 instead of 2000.

Since February 1998, Nellis officials have been looking at what could be affected by the Y2K bug. Possible scenarios include loss of power or loss of communication. In the past two years, more than 35,000 computer chips have been inventoried and tested, Whatley said. The inventory extended beyond computers to elevators, heating and ventilation systems, telephone switches and to any equipment interacting with Nellis major weapons systems, Whatley said.

Whatley said more than $1 million has been spent on making equipment Y2K compliant, including purchasing new software. She added that a portion of the amount was for things that would have been replaced anyway during normal computer maintenance.

Nellis officials have prepared and completed a contingency plan describing how to carry out a mission in the event of any problems. These plans were tested twice this year, Whatley said, to simulate an event and how to deal with it.

"As far as loss of power, all of our critical facilities have been prepared with generators," she said. "We also have back-up communications for our radio systems."

She added that any possible terrorist activity on New Year's Eve would be covered by the FBI.

Nellis is teaming up with Clark County on what some call the "Day of Doom," to share police and fire services in case of an emergency.

On New Year's Eve, several senior commanders at the base will be on alert and will select additional staff to remain on standby.

But for most of the 4,511 people who live on the base, New Year's Eve will be just like any other holiday.

"People will be able to enjoy their holiday while maintaining security at the base," Whatley said. "Most holidays are down days."

The team at Nellis also will be able to watch the Y2K event unfold several hours ahead of time, in case of any anomalies.

The Air Force Fusion Center at Gunter Air Force Base, Ala., was created in order to compile any glitches experienced in other time zones. It has been dubbed "Guam Watch" because Guam will be the first base to experience 2000.

Nellis officials will be monitoring the site, as well as keeping contact with the Air Combat Command headquarters in Virginia.