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Crashing iPad App Grounds Dozens of American Airline Flights

Posted by Soulskill on from the have-you-tried-pushing-the-button dept.

infolation writes: American Airlines was forced to delay multiple flights on Tuesday night after the iPad app used by pilots crashed. Introduced in 2013, the cockpit iPads are used as an "electronic flight bag," replacing 16kg (35lb) of paper manuals which pilots are typically required to carry on flights. In some cases, the flights had to return to the gate to access Wi-Fi to fix the issue.

8 of 263 comments (clear)

  1. Wow ... by gstoddart · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Now there's a technology fail for you.

    Reminds me of a US naval ship being towed to shore because Windows NT crashed.

    I guess this is a problem when you have consumer technology being used in mission critical environments.

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    Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    1. Re:Wow ... by TheGratefulNet · · Score: 2, Interesting

      single vendor solution, huh? really? REALLY? you flyboys thought that trusting one platform, instead of having a dual tech strategy was ENOUGH?

      who the hell is designing this system? who thought that not having an alternative backup (even if just a netbook with pdfs loaded) was a good idea?

      that person or group should be fired and never hired into tech again.

      stupid neophyte must be running the FAA. this does NOT inspire confidence, guys!!!

      shit, guys; when I do a presentation (ie, much less critical than a FLIGHT) I bring dual tech; if my overhead slides crash, I will have foils or at least a file with me that I can use on someone else's system in the classroom. if I'm using redundancy in non-mission critical situations, I'm boggled by the fact that you flyboys brought only ONE type of tech onboard for this map stuff.

      hey folks: witness the power of BRIBES, PAYOFFS AND CORRUPTION! because I cannot believe that any sane person in the tech field would send pilots up in the air with just ONE type of tech for critical documentation. some PHB must have signed a sweetheart exclusive deal with apple.

      sigh. capitalism fucks us again. when will we finally agree that 'lowest bidder' is never the right thing when it comes to safety and key infrastructure elements.

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      "It is now safe to switch off your computer."
    2. Re:Wow ... by NatasRevol · · Score: 4, Interesting

      eFlight books were switched to to save millions of dollars in fuel costs every year. They're that heavy.

      --
      There are two types of people in the world: Those who crave closure
    3. Re:Wow ... by gstoddart · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Yeah, how they failed to have two distinct sets which are never updated at the same time eludes me.

      That just pretty much guaranteed it would eventually go wrong on them.

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      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    4. Re:Wow ... by shitzu · · Score: 2, Interesting

      From the referred article: "The pilot came on and said that his first mate’s iPad powered down unexpectedly, and his had too, and that the entire 737 fleet on American had experienced the same behavior". This sounds awfully familiar to the latest IOS vulnerability published just a week ago - http://betanews.com/2015/04/22...

    5. Re:Wow ... by Megane · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I think that's a likely cause. I doubt they're updating the app (executable) on a regular basis and pushing the update, when it's only the data that changes regularly. All it takes is one glitch in a weekly data update, and one bad switch statement to cause a program to crash.

      Proper error handling is one of the most important things in keeping things running (especially in unattended systems), but one of the harder things to get right, because it's hard to test (as in QA) for every possible unexpected input. You have to get a bit paranoid with your coding, because garbage input really is out to get you.

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      #naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
  2. Before we start blaming or laughing at Apple... by JaredOfEuropa · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Let's see these AA iPads and the software for what they really are: pieces of business-critical software / hardware. Which means that they have to treat it like any other combination of business critical software and hardware. The entire configuration is frozen, software, OS, patches and all, and any change is thoroughly tested before it is pushed to the production devices.

    So what happened? One news item hints at a recent update causing the issue. Where did the update come from? Was iOS updated, or the app? Was this update tested before being rolled out?

    --
    If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
  3. Re:Shoulda run Linux by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Right... because running a different operating system would have stopped a 3rd party application from crashing. >.