UK air traffic control meltdown • Hacker News Board

Re: UK air traffic control meltdown

#21

Post by cratermoon » Mon, Sep 11, 2023, 3:57 PM UTC

sergers wrote: post #16

gumballindie wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Well that's DailyMail for you, where they tag anything parenting or healthy as "femail" section... cause you know only women are looking at that stuff. Lol. Anyways I actually think that's just reasonable response, system goes down/related system goes down , and in reviewing they are making frivolous updates to names that aren't needed. I would question these updates (while they may be minor part of overall updates o…

At least until the 70s most newspapers had a section called "Women" or something similar. Even the news about the 60s/70s women's movement appeared there, not in the main "news" sections. Those sections were mostly renamed around that time to "Lifestyle", "Home", or just "Features".

Re: UK air traffic control meltdown

#22

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Sep 11, 2023, 3:58 PM UTC

Diggsey wrote: post #19

Software has bugs, that's not really the damning part... The damning part is that in four hours and two levels of support teams, there was noone who actually knew anything about how the system worked who could remove the problematic flight plan so that the rest of the system could continue operating! What exactly is the point of these support teams when they can't fix the most basic failure mode (a single bad input..…

[deleted]

Re: UK air traffic control meltdown

#23

Post by jahewson » Mon, Sep 11, 2023, 3:58 PM UTC

Diggsey wrote: post #19

Software has bugs, that's not really the damning part... The damning part is that in four hours and two levels of support teams, there was noone who actually knew anything about how the system worked who could remove the problematic flight plan so that the rest of the system could continue operating! What exactly is the point of these support teams when they can't fix the most basic failure mode (a single bad input..…

> What exactly is the point of these support teams when they can't fix the most basic failure mode (a single bad input...)

To collect money on support contracts, I suspect.

Re: UK air traffic control meltdown

#24

Post by gonzo41 » Mon, Sep 11, 2023, 4:00 PM UTC

Diggsey wrote: post #19

Software has bugs, that's not really the damning part... The damning part is that in four hours and two levels of support teams, there was noone who actually knew anything about how the system worked who could remove the problematic flight plan so that the rest of the system could continue operating! What exactly is the point of these support teams when they can't fix the most basic failure mode (a single bad input..…

And when did you last test your monthly backups? But seriously. If you fill out all the positions in an org chart it's easy to think you're delivering, and for a lot of situations it usually works. Anointing someone a manager usually works out because people can muddle through. It doesn't work in medicine, or as it turns out, air traffic control.

Lesson learned for about the next ~5 years.

Re: UK air traffic control meltdown

#25

Post by thrdbndndn » Mon, Sep 11, 2023, 4:02 PM UTC

> Flight Plan Reception Suite Automated (FPRSA-R)

Where does the "-R" come from?

Re: UK air traffic control meltdown

#26

Post by swarnie » Mon, Sep 11, 2023, 4:04 PM UTC

omginternets wrote: post #9

Of course they blamed the French ^^

As is tradition =)

(We actaully have no major issues with the French at least in my generation, its all just good fun)

Re: UK air traffic control meltdown

#27

Post by closewith » Mon, Sep 11, 2023, 4:04 PM UTC

thrdbndndn wrote: post #25

> Flight Plan Reception Suite Automated (FPRSA-R) Where does the "-R" come from?

Replacement.

Re: UK air traffic control meltdown

#28

Post by reactordev » Mon, Sep 11, 2023, 4:04 PM UTC

So they forgot to "geographically disparate" fence their queries. Having built a flight navigation system before, I know this bug. I've seen this bug. I've followed the spec to include a geofence to avoid this bug.

Re: UK air traffic control meltdown

#29

Post by omginternets » Mon, Sep 11, 2023, 4:06 PM UTC

swarnie wrote: post #26

omginternets wrote: post #9

Of course they blamed the French ^^

As is tradition =) (We actaully have no major issues with the French at least in my generation, its all just good fun)

It’s all good. We still take cheap-shots at English food and English women ;)

Edit: I lived in London for 3 years. I miss it every day.

Re: UK air traffic control meltdown

#30

Post by blibble » Mon, Sep 11, 2023, 4:07 PM UTC

Diggsey wrote: post #19

Software has bugs, that's not really the damning part... The damning part is that in four hours and two levels of support teams, there was noone who actually knew anything about how the system worked who could remove the problematic flight plan so that the rest of the system could continue operating! What exactly is the point of these support teams when they can't fix the most basic failure mode (a single bad input..…

I wouldn't expect level 1 and level 2 to be able to diagnose a problem like this

level 3 (devs) should have been brought in much quicker though