Huge airline IT failure.

Post by **adam2** » 27 May 2017, 19:46

BA flights suspended for most of the day and major disruption ongoing.
Due to a worldwide failure of IT systems, it looked at first rather like a cyber attack but is now said to be cockup rather than conspiracy.

Another , very small, nail in the coffin for mass air travel, this should prove hugely expensive both in direct cash terms and in reputational damage.

All to the good if it puts a few people off air travel and they use rail instead, or better still stay at home.

Post by **clv101** » 27 May 2017, 20:37

The mass-flying by a wealthy minority, and it is a wealthy minority that are responsible for the vast majority of flights, is hugely selfish. Highly damaging from a climate point of view, and unlike a lot of other sources of CO2 largely discretionary. I hope history is highly critical of 21st century frequent flyers.

Post by **adam2** » 27 May 2017, 20:59

Presumably the traditional bank holiday weekend strike by baggage handlers has been called off ?

Striking seems a bit pointless at the moment, perhaps they can have another strike later in the year instead.

Post by **adam2** » 28 May 2017, 14:27

Ongoing
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-40074751

cubes · Post by **cubes** » 28 May 2017, 15:58

I've seen on some IT related places pointing the finger at outsourcing of IT functions.

fuzzy · Post by **fuzzy** » 29 May 2017, 09:14

I wonder if you can still dial in to the X25 modems in mainframe computer rooms that were/are used [unencrypted] for BACS money transfers? Just thinking out loud..

emordnilap · Post by **emordnilap** » 29 May 2017, 10:39

This thread's cheered me up on a boring Monday morning.

Potemkin Villager · Post by **Potemkin Villager** » 29 May 2017, 17:38

The journalistic efforts to determine the actual nature of the cause of the problem are lamentable. A "Power Surge" near BA's data centre at Heathrow is currently being uncritically accepted by lazy hacks.

Perish the thought it might be something as mundane as penny pinching maintenance and a system so cobbled together. poorly documented and complex that nobody really understands the nature of it's vulnerabilities and where they are located.

That brilliant senior management strategy of outsourcing and making a whole load of experienced staff redundant does seem to be a common factor in a number of complex IT system meltdowns.