Posted on 08/20/2010 9:16:53 AM PDT by Erik Latranyi
Malware may have been a contributory cause of a fatal Spanair crash that killed 154 people two years ago.
Spanair flight number JK 5022 crashed with 172 on board moments after taking off from Madrid's Barajas Airport on a scheduled flight to Las Palmas on 20 August 2008. Just 18 survived the crash and subsequent fire aboard the McDonnell Douglas MD-82 aircraft.
The airline's central computer which registered technical problems on planes was infected by Trojans at the time of the fatal crash and this resulted in a failure to raise an alarm over multiple problems with the plane, according to Spanish daily El Pais (report here). The plane took off with flaps and slats retracted, something that should in any case have been picked up by the pilots during pre-flight checks or triggered an internal warning on the plane. Neither happened, with tragic consequences, according to a report by independent crash investigators.
The accident on take-off happened after pilots had abandoned an earlier take-off attempt and a day after two other reported problems on board. If the airlines' central computer was working properly a take-off after three warnings would not have been allowed, thereby averting the tragedy.
A mechanic who checked the plane before take-off and an airport maintenance chief are under investigation and face possible manslaughter charges. Investigating judge Juan David Perez has ordered Spanair to supply data on the state of its systems at the time of the crash. An investigation commission is due to report on the case by December
That is awful. I’d like to see a few of the perverts that write these viruses decapitated.
What I’d want to know is *how* the system became infected in the first place.
>> The airline’s central computer which registered technical problems on planes was infected by Trojans at the time of the fatal crash ...
Yeah, adware is the problem. /s
Airplanes run Windows?!
If true, that’s one of scariest airplane stories I’ve read in some time.
I’m assuming it was windows due to its prevalence for trojan infection.
I’ve always maintained that Microsoft should have “hunter-killer” teams deployed through out the world to hunt down and dispose of anyone who wrote malware, trojans, worms or virii targeted on the Windows OS.
The allegation is that a computer used by mechanics to make maintenance log entries was infected with various malware, and that they couldn't make the entry on a timely basis. Had they been able to make that entry, the airplane would have supposedly been grounded, due to a recurring problem with a pitot tube heater.
However, the plane crashed due to an unrelated pilot error -- they forgot to put the flaps at the right position. It's a stretch to assume that had the pilots been flying a different plane, they would have remembered to do so.
No. This was a computer used in the maintenance shop on the ground.
This article is somewhere between unsubstantiated hyperbole and fantasy fiction.
This story makes no sense. The cockpit warning system would not be dependant on receiving warnings from the airlines “central computer”.
Article is written by someone who doesn’t know squat.
Whew. Good to know.
Bummer too, was hoping a certain unnamed airplane had the IP of 0.0.0.0?
:-)
I know that is a sarcasm you have there, but my brother talked me into downloading adware. When they asked for $85 I stopped and went to change/remove. It WILL NOT remove. They have Trojans hiding where you/I can't find them to remove. My computer is running slower, slower, slower.
Chances are, the trojan you have is protected by a rootkit.
Downlaod TDSSkiller from kaspersky
http://support.kaspersky.com/us/fasttrack?pid=kis&qafrom=r239&qaid=240
This wipes out the rootkit, then you can use malware bytes to remove the rest of the crap.
The best option is to download the two programs on a known, clean computer, copy them to a usb drive. Reboot your infected computer in safe mode with networking by hitting the F8 key during bootup. First run TDSSkiller, then install and update malwarebytes. Run Malwarebytes and let it run for a while. let it delete all the infected files.
Now, reboot your computer into regular mode and run your antivirus and let it take care of anything else that may be left over.
I’ve done this on two machines infected with the nasty fake antivirus trojan. It has worked on both machines.
Take your problem over to this thread and it will get some answers.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2574145/posts
In other words: a journalist.
Excellent, And they should richly rewarded for their successes.
Now if any of this had affected Ross Perot and his companies, he would have used his own people to resolve the problem. I would guess that in the earlier days, he did.
I have had to reload many pc's for my customers because of that trash. You will probably have to reformat and reload. Sorry.
I am trying to figure out why they are trying to convict two maintenance personnel for the pitot heater when the flight crew forgot to properly configure the aircraft for takeoff?
Adware isn’t the problem; it’s only the symptom.
The Swiss cheese vulnerability of Windows is the problem.
Next time you’re upgrading, upgrade to a Mac and you’ll never again have such a problem. They’re a lot more fun, too.
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