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Missing Files Blamed For Deadly A400M Crash
An anonymous reader writes: Think you had a bad day when your software drivers go missing? Rejoice, you get to live! A fatal A400M crash was linked to data-wipe mistake during an engine software update. A military plane crash in Spain was probably caused by computer files being accidentally wiped from three of its engines, according to investigators. Plane-maker Airbus discovered anomalies in the A400M's data logs after the crash, suggesting a software fault. And it has now emerged that Spanish investigators suspect files needed to interpret its engine readings had been deleted by mistake.This would have caused the affected propellers to spin too slowly causing loss of power and eventually, a crash.
Depressingly, that might actually be true.
Not because of 'apps' of course; but because no self-respecting consumer OS would fail to cryptographically verify the execution environment(lest some precious 'premium content' be absconded with by pirates) and an entire missing file probably would have caused the aircraft to refuse to move until taken back to Airbus HQ for re-blessing by the vender.
They don't succeed against motivated pirates, of course; but this is one area where consumer software vendors do actually give a fuck. If people believed that a sabotaged voting machine or a defective ECU could pirate Blu-rays, we'd live in a safer world.
Just my take as a software engineer and current DoD employee that works with C17...
There should have been some process on firing up the jet / avionics / computers that ran checks to see that even if software was not latest, was it CONSISTENT?
Big fail from the software engineering standpoint.
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