Malware Contributed To Plane Crash?

[Win7User512]

Spanish authorities investigating the crash of Spanair flight 5022 in Madrid have found that malware may have contributed to the accident, which occurred two years ago, killing 154 people on board. Only 18 survived the crash and subsequent fire. The Spanish agency charged with investigating the accident has listed the official cause as pilot error, because the pilots failed to extend the MD-80 airplane's takeoff flaps and slats, which would have helped the airplane to rise. Instead, the plane stalled just seconds after takeoff.

Article...

 

[Rhammstein]

This is complicated.. I find it hard to lay blame on the pilots, but: An aircraft of this type, there's a lot going on, and so you have a checklist. When doing this, they should have lowered the flaps, adjusted trim, etc etc, regardless of the warning, however; over time Pilots do get used to the aircraft's systems aiding them, and they may in fact have "depended" on the warning to tell them. It's very hard to judge, but ultimately, I would blame both the pilots and the system. It's hard to imagine why they would not set the flaps, you simply don't have enough lift to take off, certainly in an aircraft of that size and type.
Although it certainly is possible they simply didn't lower the flaps, for whatever reason, and the lack of a warning caused the accident. It happens, not often in Jets though.

There's a reason you have a crew, not just one pilot. It's incredible to me the captain and co-pilot "both" made the same mistake, at the same time. The co-pilot runs down the list, and calls it out, it's either set, or not, and you don't need a "warning" to see the flaps, or other systems are not where they should be, it's just a fail safe. Amazing really.

I've never even come close to a mistake of this kind, so it's hard for me to imagine they simply forgot, but it's possible.

I'm very interested in exactly how this malware worked, and how it infected the aircraft's systems.

 

[Lemur]

http://www.acicalltracking.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/Trial-period.jpg

 

[Petey7]

Based on the article, it looks like that certain people not doing everything they were supposed to was the main cause, but malware definitely kept the pilots from knowing how bad their mistakes were.

 

[Win7User512]

http://www.acicalltracking.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/Trial-period.jpg

Nice. How did you find that?

 

[Lemur]

http://www.acicalltracking.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/Trial-period.jpg

Nice. How did you find that?

My network admin has it on his door.

 

[johndh]

I cannot, and wont comment upon this specific accident, but, as a retired Boeing Captain, I know that strict adherence to check-lists have saved my bacon better than any software has. Being rushed and skipping check-lists are a recipe for disaster. Some may have called me a git, in the past, but I have now grown to be an old git.

Rhammstein Spot on.

Lemur A true gem, thanks

 

[Lemur]

I cannot, and wont comment upon this specific accident, but, as a retired Boeing Captain, I know that strict adherence to check-lists have saved my bacon better than any software has. Being rushed and skipping check-lists are a recipe for disaster. Some may have called me a git, in the past, but I have now grown to be an old git.

Rhammstein Spot on.

Lemur A true gem, thanks

Like a crash here. You would know the runway is also the direction. By looking at a compass heading, they would have known they were on the wrong runway, which was UNLIT and under repairs. Everyone died except for the co-pilot. Simple low tech compass would have saved lives.

 

[neo101]

I cannot, and wont comment upon this specific accident, but, as a retired Boeing Captain, I know that strict adherence to check-lists have saved my bacon better than any software has. Being rushed and skipping check-lists are a recipe for disaster. Some may have called me a git, in the past, but I have now grown to be an old git.

Rhammstein Spot on.

Lemur A true gem, thanks

Intel 1086 CPU's still run many of the flight systems & keep the older jumbos (and many others) flying!

 

[johndh]

Lemur,

I nearly had a DanAir 727 land on top of me on the Taxiway, back in the 80's. And there are plenty of documented incidents of planes landing at wrong airports, let alone the wrong runway. My opening words in my approach and landing briefing: "This will be an approach to land on runway ## at airport xyz, the inbound qdm is ###, descision height is ###"

Simple low tech compass would have saved lives.

Yup, totally agree.

Intel 1086 CPU's still run many of the flight systems & keep the older jumbos (and many others) flying!

Scary stuff, that's why there is two of everything.

 

[Lomai]

Best not to speculate as there appear to be a couple of issues here
Sad really if the monitoring software was compromised by a Trojan

 

[johndh]

Lomai.

Last para in the article says it all really.

 

[Lomai]

Lomai.

Last para in the article says it all really.

Sad but understood.

Here's some more on the issue:

No single issue, as expressed by the media and witnesses, should have produced such tragic results. Researchers will probably focus on a catastrophic engine failure/fire that disabled flight control surfaces or connections. They will examine whether those factors plus insufficient airspeed, negative cross-over effects, wing stalls, maintenance, corporate governance and operating procedures contributed in causing the aircraft to veer off its path and crashed.

 

[johndh]

No single issue,.....

These days, Pilots are taught psychology relavent to flying. They call it 'Human Factors, Performance and Limitations' and 'Crew Resource Management'. I haven't looked up the precise latest statistics, but over time, mechanical failures as a cause of accidents has fallen dramatically. When HFPL and CRM training was introduced, that too had a very positive impact on safety. However, at about year 2000, the incidents caused by the pilot or other crew, stopped reducing.

Most accidents have no one single cause, but are a result of a chain of events that lead to the accident. The training is designed to identify the 'chain' and 'break it' Have we reached the design limit of the pilot?

 

[Lomai]

No single issue,.....

These days, Pilots are taught psychology relavent to flying. They call it 'Human Factors, Performance and Limitations' and 'Crew Resource Management'. I haven't looked up the precise latest statistics, but over time, mechanical failures as a cause of accidents has fallen dramatically. When HFPL and CRM training was introduced, that too had a very positive impact on safety. However, at about year 2000, the incidents caused by the pilot or other crew, stopped reducing.

Most accidents have no one single cause, but are a result of a chain of events that lead to the accident. The training is designed to identify the 'chain' and 'break it' Have we reached the design limit of the pilot?

Thanks for sharing that information
As for the question, economics is now the new buzzword
Here's some more info on the accident - to be taken with a grain of salt :

[FONT=ARIAL,]There were previous instances of this problem in preceding flights archived in the mainframe/maintenance computer which would have flagged the aircraft to further inspections. They did not come up on the computer and a MEL procedure was put in place to pass the rectification of the problem to another MX station.

The temporary procedure left the configuration warning horn inoperative. The pilots missed the flaps and slats on their check list which was interrupted by a radio call. When they picked back up on the check list they started after the flaps and slats auctioning. When they applied take off power the warning horn did not sound to indicate improper configuration because the circuit breaker was pulled. The rest is history. [/FONT]

 

[Airbot]

Fact check: malware did not bring down a passenger jet | ZDNet