I bet a “corrupt file” means somebody accidentally dropped a table
TFA clearly says "database". They dropped the whole database.
A corrupt file led to the FAA ground stoppage – also found in backup system
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Re: A corrupt file led to the FAA ground stoppage – also found in backup system
#152There was a similar situation in Russia just a year ago (a federal aviation agency not having access to its online system): https://mentourpilot.com/breaking-russian-aviation-authority... >Due to temporary lack of access to Internet and malfunction of the electronic document flow system of Rosaviatsia the Federal Agency for Air Transport is switching to paper version. >“The document flow procedure is being determined…
I saw some sources claiming that was a hack, but not sure how credible that claim was.
Re: A corrupt file led to the FAA ground stoppage – also found in backup system
#153> In the overnight hours of Tuesday into Wednesday, FAA officials decided to shut down and reboot the main NOTAM system -- a significant decision, because the reboot can take about 90 minutes, according to the source. 90 minutes; this certainly appears to be an advertisement about Windows OS.
Or just waiting for thorough AV scan on boot.
Re: A corrupt file led to the FAA ground stoppage – also found in backup system
#154Earlier quoted context omitted.
I spent a lot of time at the FAA writing software. (6+ years) there is a huge culture of process, policy and not a whole lot of thinking or analysis or actually understanding the problems that they are working on. it is maddening. imagine a spreadsheet with 700 lines in it telling you that you need to do ABCDEFG each of those lines is instructing you to write a document detailing a procedure with the chain of custody…
This is common for government agencies. I worked at Labor and your second paragraph hit very close to home. The only plus side was the insane amount of free time you spent waiting. I tried to go back on the civilian side of the contracts and I nope'd out of it as soon as I hit red tape
This is by design, it meets the primary goal of the government which is funding patronage jobs that make few, if any, demands on the worker.
Re: A corrupt file led to the FAA ground stoppage – also found in backup system
#155"...central database for all NOTAMs (Notice to Air Missions) nationwide" No. NOTAM is "notice to airmen."
Nope. https://www.faa.gov/about/initiatives/notam/what_is_a_notam
Note that this was changed about a year ago.
https://www.faa.gov/documentLibrary/media/Order/7930.2S_Chg_...
Re: A corrupt file led to the FAA ground stoppage – also found in backup system
#156Earlier quoted context omitted.
I will always elect to be stuck on an Amtrak than stuck on a plane or in an airport. I'll take a book to the observation car and read next to the Mennonites doing their knitting and love every minute of it, no worries from me.
Are you aware that an Amtrak passenger train was stuck in South Carolina for 39 hours this month? Some of the passengers felt they were being held hostage. At least at an airport you can walk outside and catch an Uber.
https://www.google.com/search?q=passengers+trapped+on+plane
Half a dozen news stories about passengers getting trapped on planes that were sitting on the tarmac from the past 30 days alone.
I'll take being "trapped" on a train that has a cafe car, numerous bathrooms, power outlets, likely cell phone service or wifi, plenty of room to walk around, and considerably more leg room and seat-reclining...over being trapped in a metal tube, crunched into a tiny seat, with a bathroom that probably won't function past a few hours, limited food, no power, and nowhere to get up and walk around.
Not to mention, if you're anywhere near civilization, if push comes to shove: you have at least some possibility of being able to just leave. On a jet airliner in an airport, you are completely trapped.
Federally airlines should be required to deplane passengers after a certain amount of time, or immediately if the plane becomes too hot/cold, runs out of water, or the bathroom stops working....and the flight crew criminally punished if they don't. But that will never happen because of airline industry lobbyists.
Re: A corrupt file led to the FAA ground stoppage – also found in backup system
#157Earlier quoted context omitted.
I will always elect to be stuck on an Amtrak than stuck on a plane or in an airport. I'll take a book to the observation car and read next to the Mennonites doing their knitting and love every minute of it, no worries from me.
What is stopping you from doing that in an airport?
Re: A corrupt file led to the FAA ground stoppage – also found in backup system
#158Earlier today another HN user linked to a PDF from a previous 2018 (cira 2014) investigation that pointed to the "dual-channel back up" system being fragile and likely insufficient. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34338373 > ERAM’s original design did not include a dedicated backup system. FAA believed that ERAM did not need one due to the redundancy provided by the system’s dual channel design. This design was…
I see this a lot with people are experts in real time operating systems environments, particularly in aviation/space stuff (maybe because that’s where I worked for a while). They have excellent intuition around making things redundant to single pieces of hardware failing but don’t really grok making stuff resilient to wider failures. Anything involving transaction logs, rollbacks, and plain old backups take a backsea…
Formal verification of not having such fatal bugs would allow a real-time system without reliance of backups to not screw up, but still of course having logs/rollbacks for (human) input actions to cope with mistakes.
It's just that production software essentially never used formal verification to a sufficient extend.
Re: A corrupt file led to the FAA ground stoppage – also found in backup system
#159Re: A corrupt file led to the FAA ground stoppage – also found in backup system
#160Earlier quoted context omitted.
Nope. https://www.faa.gov/about/initiatives/notam/what_is_a_notam
Note that this was changed about a year ago. https://www.faa.gov/documentLibrary/media/Order/7930.2S_Chg_...
This is the "explanation:"
"These changes include modifying the acronym NOTAM from Notice to Airmen to the more applicable term Notice to Air Missions"
This is not explanatory, and sounds like more pandering.