Southwest Airlines grounds its entire fleet amid giant computer outage

Oxman

Well-Known Member


Southwest Airlines grounded flights across the country Tuesday for the second time in less than 24 hours, amid reports of nationwide computer issues.

Air travelers took to Twitter by the thousands with reports of what airline staff reportedly told them was a computer system outage — hours after “intermittent performance issues” with a third-party weather app forced a similar group stop Monday night.

“We are aware of system issues and are working quickly to resolve. We will share more info soon,” Southwest posted on its official Twitter account at 2 p.m. Tuesday.

The shutdown came after a glitch Monday night prevented “transmission of weather information that is required to safely operate our aircraft,” the airline told Fox Business.

It was not immediately clear whether the two incidents were related.

Southwest flyers expressed confusion on Twitter. Many said the airline informed them their flights were canceled and reported getting cut off from customer services after waiting hours on the line. ...
 
WELP!!!

This has got alot to say for the overreliance on technology. While it is rumored by many as to save time and money...thus is one of those events in corporate emergency management that is going to be hard to prove that technology saves time and money........fight me!

Yup as ASpilot@be said....commute just got tougher
 
WELP!!!

This has got alot to say for the overreliance on technology. While it is rumored by many as to save time and money...thus is one of those events in corporate emergency management that is going to be hard to prove that technology saves time and money........fight me!

Yup as ASpilot@be said....commute just got tougher

Mo technology, mo problems.
 
Mo technology, mo problems.
On another board I frequent there is a strong nostalgia for the '70s and '80s, mostly by people old enough to remember them, myself included. I fully understand why these folks feel that way, but I suspect my hindsight is being viewed through rose colored glasses. I know the lack of stress of no digital tether is remembered fondly, and I often wish we could basically disappear at 5 PM like we used to and that's a strong argument against 24 hr connectivity. But trying to be a luddite in the modern world will lead one to the poorhouse (I don't think that exists anymore, now it's Skid Row or Venice Beach). I grabbed a pen and paper last week and wrote my mom a letter, I explained and complained about a lot of things that've happened between her and I over the span of my life. I got a letter from her a couple of days ago, it contained a lot of information I was not aware of, I think taking the time to write a letter in ink on paper to a loved one requires a lot more thought than stabbing at a keyboard in a fit of self-important nonsense. Were the the '70s, '80s and '90s a great time to grow up? Absolutely, there was plenty of stress, but I wonder how the balance of QOL and tech compares to now. There's an old saying.. Hard times make good people, good times make weak people, weak people make hard times. And the cycle repeats.
 
I have no information if this was the system involved, but I see that Southwest started using IBM's The Weather Channel's WSI's Pilotbrief Optima on their EFBs about three years back.

The blurbs were all about it being able to depict bad weather further out than the aircraft radar could, and pushbutan PIREPs. That doesn't sound like the kind of thing that would prevent dispatch. Did they expand the integration or?
 
I have no information if this was the system involved, but I see that Southwest started using IBM's The Weather Channel's WSI's Pilotbrief Optima on their EFBs about three years back.

The blurbs were all about it being able to depict bad weather further out than the aircraft radar could, and pushbutan PIREPs. That doesn't sound like the kind of thing that would prevent dispatch. Did they expand the integration or?

It's probably Amadeus - the reservation system they switched to a couple of years ago. WN was actually way behind the times in their technology prior to this. Downside was that they couldn't operate red eyes (their incumbent system couldn't account for a passenger who departed on one day and connected on another). Upside was that they didn't have this issue.
 
Virtual currency doesn't seem like a good idea, even if the dollar gets way inflated there's still a tangible asset connected to it, bitcoin could just disappear like a fart in the wind.
 
I don't understand the airlines server needs but I do work in IT. I've managed Networks and Data Centers for 2 fortune 500 companies and a major SoCal utility. It's all about redundancy and using the cloud wherever possible.

Two data center located at least a couple hundred miles apart. Both data centers have the same equipment, one data center is on standby being constantly updated in case of failover. If the failover goes as planned the end user saw the network get a little slow for 30 seconds while data routes update. The IT origination is in panic mode but others don't even know something happened.

I'm not telling them where to put the backup data center but it looks like this and Wayne Newton is usually in town. The reason you don't see Building 7 is because it's surrounded by government cars.

8&9.PNG
 
They’re offering passengers affected by overnight delays “discounts” at hotels, per a friend on facebook.

If true, that won’t go over well on the social interwebz.
 
Virtual currency doesn't seem like a good idea, even if the dollar gets way inflated there's still a tangible asset connected to it, bitcoin could just disappear like a fart in the wind.
It's decentralized though. I'm not sold on BTC as a viable currency, but there's other cryptos that seem viable.
 
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