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Computer Error Grounds Japanese Flights

zephiros writes "Mainichi Daily News reports that a "computer glitch" in Tokyo air traffic control systems resulted in the cancellation of 203 flights this weekend. At 7am Saturday, the error "caused the names of airlines and flight numbers to disappear from radar screens." A Japan Times article suggests the problem may be related to upgrades on a system which exchanges flight plans with the Defense Agency. Makes one wonder about the integration and maintenance risks of systems like CAPPS II."

7 of 154 comments (clear)

  1. What does CAPPS II have to do with this? by revmoo · · Score: 5, Insightful
    "Makes one wonder about the integration and maintenance risks of systems like CAPPS II."

    Does that seem like flaimbait to anyone else? Computers crash all the time, granted steps can be taken to ensure redundancy, but this is nothing new. This problem has nothing to do with the CAPPS II system other than the fact that they are both computerized systems, I'm not trying to defend CAPPS II, I just don't think that it is any way related to this this tokyo airlines problem. Computers crash, it's a fact of life, the real question here, is why weren't there multiple redundancies in place for such a mission critical application.

    --
    I would expect such blatant racism on Fark, but on Slashdot? Mods please ban this asshole.
    1. Re:What does CAPPS II have to do with this? by Phroggy · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Computers crash, it's a fact of life...

      Been listening to Microsoft too much lately, eh? It shouldn't be something we take for granted.

      --
      $x='S24;r)>63/* h@<5+oZ)32"5cz';$me='phroggy'x$];
      $x=~y+ -xz+\0-Tx+;print$_^chop$me for split'',$x;
  2. redundancy by Brigadier · · Score: 4, Insightful



    Am I the only one wondering why there was no redundancy. As in effective. One would think something as important as airtraffic control should have several layers of complete redundancy. As in if a control tower has say a catastrophic failure there is another a.) civilian b.) military control center able to hand off instructions. which would include all flight information. including passengers, cargo flight log, flight plan everything.

  3. Anyone see the other news on this site?! by caluml · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Anyone see the other news on this site?!

    Police recover rock climber's body after fatal fall
    Motorcyclist dies after being hit by a truck
    61-year-old jobless man fatally abuses senile mother
    Dad dies of shock after son's repeated beatings
    Comic questioned over hitting woman in restaurant
    Death row inmate dies in prison cell

    Can someone in Japan please confirm that this is a freaky, awful day, and that Japan isn't normally this bad?

    Although that last one is quite ironic.

  4. Computer or Programmer error? by Technomancer · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Was it computer that failed some operation or lousy programmer who made a mistake in the program?
    I am sick of people complaining abour "computer errors" when they are at fault.

  5. Re:Why? by 56 · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Because the program that caused the error was similar to CAPPSII.

    To quote the article:

    A Japan Times article suggests the problem may be related to upgrades on a system which exchanges flight plans with the Defense Agency.

  6. Re:Was It Linux Based? by fitten · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If it had been open source, this problem would have never happened. With millions of eyeballs detailing the code, we'd have found and corrected this bug before it ever occurred. Whats more, if the flaw did get thru, the operator could have jumped in and fixed the problem real time.

    OMG... man are you brainwashed. First, as impossible as it may seem (gasp), open source software has bugs in it too. Second, even if it were open source, what million eyes would be looking at the code? I bet there isn't any source in the OSS archives that a "million eyes" have looked through. Third, you assume that the operator is an a) programmer, and b) at all familiar with the code enough to debug it and understand just what in the hell the code is doing anyway. Keep repeating your mantras fan boy, may they always give you a warm tingly feeling as you say them.