The most frightening words in the English language are, " Our computer is down. " You hear it more and more when you are on business. The other day I was at the airport waiting for a ticket to Washington and the girl in the ticket office said, "I'm sorry, I can't sell you a ticket. Our computer is down. "
" If your computer is down, just write me out a ticket. "
"I can't write you out a ticket. The computer is the only one allowed to do so. "
I looked down on the computer and every passenger was just standing there drinking coffee and staring at the black screen. Then I asked her, "What do all you people do?"
"We give the computer the information about your trip, and then it tells us whether you can fly with us or not. "
"So when it goes down, you go down with it. "
"That's good, sir. "
"How long will the computer be down?" I wanted to know.
"I have no idea. Sometimes it' s down for 10 minutes, sometimes for two hours. There' s no way we can find out without asking the computer, and since it' s down it won't answer us. "
After the girl told me they had no backup computer, I said. "Let' s forget the computer. What about your planes? They' re still flying, aren' t they?"
"I couldn' t tell without asking the computer. "
"Maybe I could just go to the gate and ask the pilot if he' s flying to Washington, " I suggested.
"I wouldn' t know what gate to send you to. Even if the pilot was going to Washington, he couldn' t take you if you didn' t have a ticket. "
"Is there any other airline flying to Washington within the next few hours?"
"I wouldn't know, " she said, pointing at the dark screen. "Only ' IT' knows. It can't tell me."
By this time there were quite a few people standing in lines. The word soon spread to other travelers that the computer was down. Some people went white; some people started to cry and still others kicked their luggage.