Re: AS11296 -- Hijacked?

[Steven Bellovin <smb () cs columbia edu>]

On Oct 1, 2010, at 7:00 51PM, Owen DeLong wrote:

> On Oct 1, 2010, at 2:31 PM, George Bonser wrote:
>
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: wherrin () gmail com 
> > > Herrin
> > > Sent: Friday, October 01, 2010 2:27 PM
> > > To: George Bonser
> > > Cc: Christopher Morrow; nanog () nanog org
> > > Subject: Re: AS11296 -- Hijacked?
> > >
> > >
> > > Death by IP address?
> > >
> > > -Bill
> >
> > Quite possible if one is using it to distribute a virus. RE: Spanair
> > flight JK-5022
> >
> > http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/europe/news/article_1578877.php/C
> > omputer-viruses-may-have-contributed-to-Spanish-2008-plane-crash
>
> http://aircrewbuzz.com/2008/10/officials-release-preliminary-report-on.html
>
> A more recent Interim report:
>
> http://www.fomento.es/NR/rdonlyres/AADDBF93-690C-4186-983C-8D897F09EAA5/75736/2008_032_A_INTERINO_01_ENG.pdf
>
> The crew apparently skipped the step where they were supposed to deploy
> the slats/flaps prior to takeoff.
>
> Additionally, the warning system on the aircraft which should have alerted
> the crew to the failure to extend the flaps/slats also failed to sound.
>
> A computer virus may have had a small contribution to the failure to detect
> the warning system failure in the maintenance process, but, it did not cause
> the accident.
>
> The accident is clearly the result of pilot error, specifically the failure to
> properly configure the aircraft for takeoff and failure to take remedial
> action upon activation of the stall warning system during the initial
> climb.
There's more to the story than that.  There was a problem with a sensor -- the heater for it was running when the plane 
was on the ground, which it shouldn't do.  The mechanic couldn't reproduce the problem; since there was no icing likely 
and the heater was only needed if there was icing, the pilot flipped the breaker to disable it.  (The virus-infected 
computer was the one that should have been used to log two previous reports of that same heater problem, but no one 
even tried entering the reports until after the crash, so the virus wasn't at all the problem.)  Because of the 
distractions -- the return to the gate, the co-pilot making a call to cancel dinner planes, a third person in the 
cockpit, the pilots indeed forgot to set the flaps -- and just breezed through the checklist item (which they did 
recite) rather than actually paying attention to it.

However...  the accident investigators learned that in almost all previous instances, worldwide, of that heater 
problem, the cause was a failed relay in the "I'm on the ground" circuit.  That same relay was used to activate the 
Takeoff Configuration Warning System -- which didn't alert the pilots to the flaps problem because the relay failed 
again after the plane left the gate for the second time.  In other words, a crucial safety system had a single point of 
failure -- and that failure also contributed to the distraction that led to the pre-takeoff pilot error.


                --Steve Bellovin, http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~smb