Friday, January 13, 2023

30-Year old software blamed for FAA outage. Or...something else.

MSN: The software blamed for FAA outage is three decades old and years from an upgrade.

The software that failed and forced the Federal Aviation Administration to ground thousands of flights on Wednesday is 30 years old and not scheduled to be updated for another six years, according to a senior government official.

This system was installed in 1993 and runs the Notice to Air Missions system, or NOTAM, which sends pilots vital information they need to fly, the official said.
[.]
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg told NBC News that he has asked the FAA, "to make sure that there are enough safeguards built into the system that this level of disruption can't happen because of an individual person’s decision or action or mistake."

Is Petey saying someone F'ed Up? But - but - the senior official said it was software

Another un-named "senior government official." Do these people have names? Can we know who they are? They are on government payroll.

The MSN story and coverage of this story at NBC and CNN are copy/paste versions of the same story. Why, it's almost like they're parroting talking points handed down from Leni Riefenstahl's DNC Narrative Central!

Yet, al-Reuters reports the problem was a "procedural error."

The FAA said its preliminary analysis "determined that a data file was damaged by personnel who failed to follow procedures. The system is functioning properly." The FAA did not answer more questions about the specifics of the problem.
[.]
The same file corrupted both the main system and its backup, said people familiar with the review, who asked not to be identified.

Enter, "people familiar with the review, who asked not to be identified."

So, we really don't know and it's unlikely we'll have a, or any, specific reason(s) for this fiasco.

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