Hate to have been that computer programmer...

Remember that scene in the Battlestar Galactica miniseries when the Cylons first invade Caprica? A squadron of Vipers are launched to intercept the incoming enemy, but are rendered helplessly floating in space after a Cylon computer virus crashes their onboard systems. Seems that such events aren't so much science fiction fantasy after all.

A group of eight F-22 Raptors, the most advanced aircraft in the world, set out from Hawaii to their new home in Okinawa, Japan. Unfortunately, two of the planes ran into a bit of trouble. As reported on CNN:

The F-22 Raptor is our frontline fighter, air defense, air superiority. It also can drop bombs. It is stealthy. It's fast and you want it all to go right on your first deployment to the Pacific and it didn't. At the international date line, whoops, all systems dumped and when I say all systems, I mean all systems, their navigation, part of their communications, their fuel systems. They were -- they could have been in real trouble. They were with their tankers. The tankers - they tried to reset their systems, couldn't get them reset. The tankers brought them back to Hawaii. This could have been real serious. It certainly could have been real serious if the weather had been bad. It turned out OK. It was fixed in 48 hours. It was a computer glitch in the millions of lines of code, somebody made an error in a couple lines of the code and everything goes.

Speculation seems to blame either the time change or the change in longitude from W179.99 degrees to E 180 degrees upon crossing the International Date Line. All this, because of a faulty line of code. Considering passenger aircraft are becoming more and more reliant on computer navigation and control, as well, my fear of flying has just jumped to another level.