May 13th/14th 1966

This is a very important date in SITA’s history. Reference is also made in the SITA-AERO site on the internet. It is the date when we have implemented the first real-time computer system for store and forward message switching functions in Frankfurt (replacing the old torn-tape relay centre located at Frankfurt airport.

The equipment was coming from Sperry Rand/Univac, the model Univac 418/2 real-time computer.

Actually it was the second attempt. A first attempt in April was not successful. After two days of painful fighting we had to switch back to the old centre. Nevertheless, we had produced at lot of material (print outs, error reports etc.) given to the software team for further debugging. In the week starting May 9 the Univac programming team informed us that they were ready for a new attempt.

(On the left: Koen Molenaar, Director Operations, to his right myself, Deputy Director Operations and SITA Project Manager Frankfurt)

As we had closely worked together with the programmers, we were also confident that this time  it would be OK. In agreement with Koen we fixed the date for cut-over on May 13th at 20h00. This is the moment where traffic would slow down for the night and heading for saturday and sunday with low traffic during the week-end. Thus we would have time to observe the system and, if required, give the programmers the opportunity to correct minor bugs.

We informed Mr. Sander, our representative for Western Germany, of our decision. Mr. Sander was utterly upset: “No, no, this is not possible!!!” “What is wrong with this date?” enquired Koen. – “But didn’t you realise that May 13th is a friday?” – “Well this is exactly the reason we chose friday, the beginning of the week-end.” – “Yes, but this coming friday is the 13th of the month. This is a very bad day and date!” implored Mr. Sander. What the two guys from Paris had ignored and what was wellknown by the Frankfurt staff, Mr. Sander was mega superstitious. Obviously we couldn’t allow superstition interfere in a rational technico-operational planning and May the 13th was maintained.

Comes friday, May 13th, everybody is ready on the bridge (see picture above). Around 18h00 comes a phone call from the PTT Technical centre advising us that they had problems with some of the lines to be switched over. They promised to work hard to fix faults and advise us immediately. Close to 20h00 a call from the PTT:  they were not ready and needed more time. So we kept lingering around and Koen’s face got angrier with every hour passing. After mid-night a miracle happens, PTT had solved all the problems. Cut-over took place at 00h15 and was successful.

For sure, Mr. Sander had organised this comedy in agreement with the PTT technicians. Koen and myself decided not to discuss the matter further with Mr. Sander and he remained very discreet and not telling us that  he was right after all with friday the 13th. The system was working fine and every body were happy

(Comment on the back-side of the photo above. Robert Kocher was Project Manager on the Univac side, former Telecom Director with Swissair)