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Trojan-Infected Computer Linked To 2008 Spanair Crash

Posted by Soulskill on from the blue-screen-of-literal-death dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Two years ago, Spanair flight JK-5022 crashed shortly after takeoff in Madrid, killing 154 of its 172 passengers and crew. El Pais online newspaper reports that the ground computer responsible for triggering an alarm after three failures are reported in a plane failed to do so. The computer was infected with trojans (Google translation of Spanish original)."

3 of 324 comments (clear)

  1. Nothing to do with the plane by Kupfernigk · · Score: 5, Informative
    This is an aggregating computer at SpanAir HQ which is supposed to record aircraft alerts and notify when too many of them happen too close together. Its only connection with the on-board computer is that somehow it receives the alerts from it. Its OS is unstated. It is not a mission-critical system, it is a decision-support system. Even so, someone looks to have been careless.

    Whoever modded up the above post - you've missed the point. There may have been a fault in the on-board management system - or human error failing to heed a warning - but nothing in TFA suggests that malware was in any way involved on the flight deck.

    --
    From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
  2. Summary needs a bit of clarification by ptbarnett · · Score: 5, Informative
    The infected computer was one being used by mechanics to enter maintenance log entries. According to the article, an alert is supposed to be raised if three failures in the same part or subsystem occurred. If I understand the broken English correctly, they would have taken the plane out of service had the maintenance log entry been completed before the plane attempted to take off.

    But, the problem that was supposed to be logged was reportedly an overheated pitot tube. That was not the cause of the crash: the report says that the pilots did not set the flaps correctly and a warning alarm did not go off. This was not related to the problem with the computer being used by mechanics.

    The article appears to be trying to link two independent events: a separate problem with the plane and an error by the pilots. Or maybe it's just the broken English translation.

    1. Re:Summary needs a bit of clarification by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      Spanish is my mother tongue, so maybe I can shed more light after reading the original article:

      The procedures of Spanair are to log incidences right away whenever they are detected. Three accumulated incidences and the plane is grounded.

      Two incidences had been found the day before the crash. One incidence was detected on the same day of the crash.

      However, the technicians did not enter the incidences into the system right away, because the system was too slow (assumedly due to the malware)

      The system did not trigger any alarm on the same day because the incidences had not been entered by the technicians. The plane was deemed airworthy, and then the accident happened due to the multiple causes described elsewhere.