3 ms·
Relevant programmer section on pages 5 & 6: > The system programming was not carried out in the UK, and in the country where it was performed the title Miss wa
by danso 6y ago
Relevant programmer section on pages 5 & 6:
> The system programming was not carried out in the UK, and in the country where it was performed the title Miss was used for a child, and Ms for an adult female, hence the error. A manual solution for correcting the problem was quickly identified that involved a team identifying upcoming flights, checking each booking, and changing all adult females with the title ‘Miss’ to ‘Ms’, which overcame the problem. Subsequently, this work was shared between two teams, and the process was completed every afternoon and evening for the next day’s flights. It was checked again every morning, where possible, before flights departed...
> The upgrade programmers adapted a piece of software, which changed the title of any adult female from Miss to Ms automatically, and this was implemented on 17 July 2020. This adaptation was only capable of changing bookings before check-in. Any passenger bookings with the title Miss already checked in, including online up to 24 hours before departure, would not be amended. On 20 July 2020, the programmer was making enhancements to the program to improve its performance. This should not have stopped the program from working, but as this was a ‘fix’, it could not be known for sure.
- Grustaf 6y agoThis does not increase my confidence in the airline industry.
- Cthulhu_ 6y agoIT wise I'm pretty confident that the airline industry is a cobbled together mess. A much bigger problem than COBOL that has been doing the rounds on HN lately. (mind you, there's probably some overlap in the venn diagram)
- tyingq 6y agoEspecially since they have the DOB to go by. Urgh.
- shadowgovt 6y agoHonestly, the airline industry is quite fascinating in terms of how safe it is. But that safety is maintained by procedure, cross-checking, and (especially in the commercial space) aggressive investigation of any deviation from expectations. This serious incident is a great example of that process in action. The initial issue they were investigating was that the flight gets computer-analyzed to compare the actual dynamics of the plane to the theoretical dynamics. That analysis revealed a 1kt difference between what the takeoff speed should have been and what it was measured to be (about a 0.76% deviation from expectation). That <1% deviation led to an investigation and a 7-page report. Such a level of scrutiny is expensive, but it's how commercial air travel has gotten to the "safer than cars" level it currently supports.
- ricardobayes 6y agoI would argue that even if it was developed in the UK it still might have occured. Most developers in London/UK come from abroad anyway and might not know this nuance.
- bitcharmer 6y agoA developer from India would be an educated guess here