i couldn’t make new topic at section “off topic” so i post it here
For the drop of a Spanair plane of two years ago seems to have played an important role Trojan had infected a server of the airline. This refers to an article in the Spanish newspaper ‘El Pais’ which cites an internal document of the company.
The lawyers of the victims asked the court to order the Spanair to disclose all information about the state of the computer systems of the day of the crash.
The computer seems to be related to the incident located in Palma de Mallorca. That was entrusted with the task to examine numerous information security systems of the airplane. And beating the system alarm if at least three sensors discovered a similar problem.
The warnings were never on the day of the crash, including a technical problem in the system has made possible the activation. And the problem was associated with impairment of the central computer by a Trojan. If the computer has been running since probably the plane crash might not have ever happened.
The plane had crashed in the ground shortly after takeoff from the Madrid airport, killing 154 of the 172 passengers.
I’d be interested if you could post any definitive information that a computer system problem at Spanair was anything more than a peripheral factor in this accident.
The accident appears to have been caused by the pilots interrupting their take-off checklist to have a problem with an instrument repaired, and failing to run the checklist again for the attempted departure.
This departure was made without flaps selected. The aircraft was not capable of normal flight at take-off speed with the flaps retracted.
Long story short, they taxied out for departure, encountered a problem with an instrument, and taxied back to get it fixed. As per normal routine, as they taxied back in, they retracted the flaps, and simply forgot to lower them again for the departure.
I fail to see how computer glitch at the parent company would have anything to do with this.
Oh...that's a big mistake and one I'm sure they will look into (I hope)!
I'm afraid it's one that's happened on at least one other occasion. Also caused a crash. Such crashes usually have a significant fatality rate. Here's a few accident briefs, for anyone interested.
What is particularly sad is that the same sort of accidents keep recurring. Configuration mistakes are not so common, now, and there are always contributing factors, such as a warning horn not working, rushed departure to beat weather/airport curfew etc, crew distraction at a crucial time etc.
Currently the big issue (to me) is incorrect weight being entered for the aircraft. There have been three tailscrapes of heavy airliners, relatively recently, where the takeoff weight was entered as being (usually) 100 tons light. The thrust selected, and the computed liftoff speeds, then fail to match the reality of the situation.
They’ve been incredibly lucky.
In a way, this can be partly contributed to by what I call “technology disconnect”. (There is probably an accurate term.) Basically, crews believing the computed data because automation has become so prevalent (and demanding) that real situational awareness is lacking.
All systems on the ground have their problems reported, two of these problems had been given in to the system, a third problem should have grounded the machine, this third issue was never entered into the system because the system was very slow because of a Trojan residing there. If the system software had been functioning normally the plane had never taxied out and the other human mistakes had not occurred. So you see it is sad, but human beings apparently cannot escape their fate. Romans Antiquity already held such believes, from birth on until 6 x a decennial (10 years) = 60 years of age you could do offerings to the gods to change your fate, beyond the age of 60 years your fate was inescapable, but the Trojan should have been cleansed especially from critical software,
Hi!
Even if the computer was not infected by a virus, the accident would of happen.
Two Spanair mechanics told the judge that Spanair usually took 24 hours to post any mechanical problems or failures with the planes into the computer. In this case when the mechanics tried to open the computer to input the problems they could not do it because of the trojan invasion, but by then the plane had already crash…
So unfortunately, yes it was man failure, sadly…
A la citada deficiencia en el ordenador se unió, además, el hecho de que Spanair tardaba unas 24 horas en anotar en el ordenador los fallos de sus aviones, según admitieron ante el juez dos mecánicos de la aerolínea…En este caso, cuando los empleados trataron de abrir el ordenador para anotar estas tres incidencias se dieron cuenta de que el monitor estaba inservible por la invasión de troyanos. Para entonces, la nave se había estrellado http://www.elpais.com/articulo/espana/ordenador/Spanair/anotaba/fallos/aviones/tenia/virus/elpepiesp/20100820elpepinac_11/Tes
What on Earth are you guys talking about?
An engine intake temperature gauge was inoperative.
They taxied back in to get it fixed (or disconnected.) This is not a MEL item; they were permitted to operate the flight without it.
They reason they crashed is because they failed to perform the take off checlkist, and the flaps were not lowered.
What has this got to do with a trojan?
Left123, you’re either being a smart-arse, or remarkably obtuse.