The computer scoring Spanair aircraft failures had virus

JOSÉ ANTONIO HERNÁNDEZ - Madrid - 20/08/2010 JOSÉ ANTONIO HERNÁNDEZ - Madrid - 20/08/2010

The central computer Spanair, which were recorded failures of aircraft was contaminated with malicious software when it happened, two years ago today, the crash of Flight JK 5022 .  The plane that crashed at Barajas today two years ago killed 154 of its 172 occupants, accumulating three incidents, which were not registered in time on the computer.

An internal part of the company, dated the day of the accident, indicates that the monitor was contaminated, "Trojans." These malicious programs can cause damage and facilitate attacks by hackers. Indeed, the association of victims of the crash has intervened in the case, has asked the investigating judge, Juan David Perez, Spanair ask all the entries in that computer in the days before and after the incident. The judge has just given an order in which it directed to the airline that will provide such data.

A deficiency of that computer is joined also by the fact that Spanair took about 24 hours to score in the computer failures of its planes , according to the judge admitted two mechanics from the airline. This is not a trivial matter, and expected the flight JK 5022 Madrid Barajas would not have taken off if its share on the computer had been a day. It would have triggered the alarm, since the aircraft spotted two rulings the day before the accident, August 19 and third on the day 20, the latter effect was that motivated him to return from the runway threshold, detecting the commander A tube was overheated and without justification. Are the mechanics who are required to notify each average Spanair Palma immediately after detecting it.  In this case, when employees tried to open the computer to write these three incidents realized that the monitor was useless by the invasion of Trojans. By then, the airplane had crashed.

 The summary of this accident and occupies about 12,000 pages. At the moment there are two defendants Spanair technicians. The judge is still waiting for the experts he appointed to report on the causes of the accident. A first analysis of the Commission of Inquiry into Accidents and Incidents of Civil Aviation (CIAIAC) revealed as the cause of the catastrophe that the pilots forgot to turn on takeoff flaps and slaps , there are some small spoilers on the wings and help the plane to rise. The aircraft has an alarm that warns the driver if you forget to turn those fins. That day, the alarm did not ring.  The judge investigates whether there is relationship between the failure of the alarm and the damage that was dragging the plane.