Southwest Airlines grounds its entire fleet amid giant computer outage
- Thread starter Oxman
- Start date
bike21
9-5 Ruins Lives
There are those that have had major tech failures and those that will. Perhaps time for more upgrades and backups at all the big carriers.
Sadly, this screwed my Plan C last night as WN canceled out of MKE and this after SJI crew scheduling screwed my Plan B to get home. So now one more leg to go when I shoud’ve been sipping coffee on the couch right meow. #thanksObama?
Sadly, this screwed my Plan C last night as WN canceled out of MKE and this after SJI crew scheduling screwed my Plan B to get home. So now one more leg to go when I shoud’ve been sipping coffee on the couch right meow. #thanksObama?
Cherokee_Cruiser
Bronteroc
Don’t worry, pilotless airliners will work better without any glitches. Because technology designed and made by humans doesn’t fail, as SWA has shown.
killbilly
Vocals, Lyrics, Triangle, Washboard, Kittens
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.
I spend a lot of my job explaining how our cloud architecture is put together. The words “active-active” pass my lips about 12 times a week.
When you start looking at what it takes to maintain a network that streams media it’s impressive as hell that it gets done at all.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
HRDiva
Well-Known Member
Now they are just canceling without any excuse. Saturday they cancelled a whole bunch of flights. We received our text notification while enroute to our connection city, leaving us stranded along with many others. So they scheduled flights, sold tickets and realized they had no crews to fly them. There were people who could not get confirmed tickets to their final destination until days later. We’ll see if we ever get home today. That’s a nice way to conduct business.
Crockrocket94
Well-Known Member
Add in the new people weights and you get even more issues when you need an alternate. Bumping revenue pax, bags etc.
FAA really screwed up that one .
Also - WN cancels flights ahead of time due to weather often...
FAA really screwed up that one .
Also - WN cancels flights ahead of time due to weather often...
GypsyPilot
Mohawk Town
I thought that was only for weather?
Roger Roger
Bottom of the list
Not just SWA….I was riding Alaska the other night and missed my connection because they had a broken airplane at our gate…figured since it was a company plane in the way I’d get a free hotel out of it but no luck.
Bob Ridpath
Pit Bull love
Knowing this may strike a chord or two, it’s my thought exactly. Maybe someone could explain why I’m silly to wonder about it? I know I’m old now and not the demographic of the future, but the failure issue and potential to break security seems to be a real (if only potential) threat. If one group can design a “foolproof system,” there will almost certainly be another group doing their best to work around it.
Recognizing there is a difference between “glitches” and intentional “hacks” into a system- and only being nominally aware of certain high profile events - it still seems that neither data nor operational systems are completely immune to interference.
I recall reading that the military (either Pentagon or one of the branches) was hacked a couple years ago. Likely low level, it does suggest to a troglodyte such as moi that there are those looking to delve deeper into such areas. There can be no denying that major banks, investment firms and corporations have, in fact, experienced real security breaches that expose clients and customers to the potential for fraud and loss. Not that I ever did, but I still can’t cash a check at Walmart because three men used my identity on a trip through the south to rip the company off under my name with personal information they stole from my health insurance company through Putnam County. The State of Louisiana, wherein the three were arrested, has a tremendous follow-up with victims of crime, and I still get regular emails about the status, new court appearances and so forth of the perpetrators (who are now serving jail time). I was only one of several hundred people whose “identities“ they stole from supposedly savvy and secure businesses.
Point being (and without caring much about Walmart), are we honestly at the place wherein a bad guy or gal absolutely CAN’T hack a transportation system for a wrongful purpose (either on land, sea, or in the air)? I sure as hell doubt they’ll stop trying.
While personal anecdotes aren’t proof positive, I can’t begin to tell you the number of times (for a multitude of reasons) that emergency services has been compromised over the years because of equipment or software failure, and - yes - in at least a couple of cases because of hacking into a system. The cause might range from a mouse chewing wires at a junction box through cable/fiber fires on transmission lines or sending/receiving facilities to car accidents that take down poles or equipment. Both the County Sheriff and the 911 Center experienced electronic “attacks” on several occasions during my 15 years of service. The 911 Center had stand-alone servers (not connected to the County site itself but still connected to a range of other (supposedly) secure online agencies. It just didn’t always work the way it was supposed to, and while there were always work-arounds, it was time-consuming to detect the issue(s), deal with them, and use alternate methods to get help to people in need.
Mock me if you will, but this has been my experience. I suspect that pilotless air transport, driverless cars and engineerless trains, will be found within a younger person’s lifetime. Just saw an interesting video that noted the “weak link” in systems which people generally provide, with up to 70% attributable to “human error.” Damned machines will likely do better, but I’m not getting into a driverless car with Todd, even if I can enjoy a fine Martini in the back.
As noted, I’m old now. YMMV.
Richman
JC’s Resident Curmudgeon
Thats the SWA mantra. Their stuff don’t stink so they don’t play well with others. Ticket agreements and interline baggage are the stuff of rubes from a bygone era.
SlumTodd_Millionaire
Most Hated Member
Anyone who thinks a 737 represents anything about current technology makes me laugh.
JordanD
Chinese Food Enthusiast
Well, it is one of the most common airliners out there. They aren’t going anywhere. Even the newer A320s are still 80s tech at best.
HRDiva
Well-Known Member
Our aircraft is sitting in SRQ and not moving. Why? We are now sitting in ATL waiting for the plane so we can go home. Sounds like a crew problem, not weather.
Low&Slow
Ancora imparo
Resting Glitch Face.
