British Airways Passengers Delayed By Computer Glitch (bbc.com) 58
Reader rastos1 writes: British Airways told customers that some flights were cancelled on Monday "due to operational reasons." The airline apologized to customers, saying its IT teams were "working to resolve this issue". [...] a professional poker player from London, told the BBC she had queued for a flight in Las Vegas for two and a half hours. "My boarding pass was filled out by hand. Even had a hand-written hand baggage label. Staff were updating us well; The staff... were excellent. The pilot said the delays were due to a computer glitch and apologized profusely."This comes less than a month after Delta Air Lines and Vienna Airport both had their services disrupted due to computer glitches.
Slow news day (Score:1)
Had a friend flying BA with Gatwick today. Was slightly slower than usual apparently. It seems pen and paper isn't such a bad substitute.
"Computer glitch" (Score:3, Insightful)
So is this going to be another "computer glitch" where the "computer glitch" was actually an electrical fire caused by power equipment? Everyone is quick to blame computers.
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
You'd be surprised how quick the airlines would be to AVOID admitting computer problems in this case.
Any other company would be blaming this on a hacker or group of hackers, attempting to disrupt a vital service and damage the economy in some sort of nebulous concept of "terrorism." The airlines, on the other hand? It's literally their business to make people feel safe, even when they're not (you'll notice that all of this child groping and delays courtesy of the TSA haven't stopped any drugs from being shi
Re: (Score:2)
Human errors really (Score:5, Insightful)
So is this going to be another "computer glitch" where the "computer glitch" was actually an electrical fire caused by power equipment? Everyone is quick to blame computers.
Kind of a pet peeve of mine. For all practical purposes there is no such thing as a "computer error". Computers are machines that do exactly what they were designed and instructed to do. Nearly everything we casually refer to as a "computer glitch" is really a human error once you dig through the abstraction layers. It might be a bad bit of code or a poorly designed piece of hardware or inadequately spec'ed equipment or failure to account for (possibly severe) environmental factors or inadequate data redundancy but at the end of the day these are ALL human errors in reality. We built the machines and told them what to do so if the machines don't function as expected that is at some level the fault of a human.
The computer just provides a convenient way to hide the person actually responsible for the mistake. But it is a human mistake somewhere along the line in all but a hand full of cases.
Re: (Score:2)
Nearly everything we casually refer to as a "computer glitch" is really a human error once you dig through the abstraction layers.
Personally I blame the monkeys. If they weren't so damn keen to evolve into people we would never have had this problem.
Re: (Score:2)
So is this going to be another "computer glitch" where the "computer glitch" was actually an electrical fire caused by power equipment? Everyone is quick to blame computers.
Kind of a pet peeve of mine. For all practical purposes there is no such thing as a "computer error". Computers are machines that do exactly what they were designed and instructed to do. Nearly everything we casually refer to as a "computer glitch" is really a human error once you dig through the abstraction layers. It might be a bad bit of code or a poorly designed piece of hardware or inadequately spec'ed equipment or failure to account for (possibly severe) environmental factors or inadequate data redundancy but at the end of the day these are ALL human errors in reality. We built the machines and told them what to do so if the machines don't function as expected that is at some level the fault of a human.
The computer just provides a convenient way to hide the person actually responsible for the mistake. But it is a human mistake somewhere along the line in all but a hand full of cases.
In a perfect world then we could trace back every event back to the human that caused it though action or inaction and have them spanked appropriately. But we dont live in a perfect world.
In the real world, complex systems behave unexpectedly and often in ways difficult to predict until they occur. This is why we call them "glitches" when we talk about computers. Even technically perfect code or hardware operated exactly as it should be can behave unexpectedly simply because the system is too complex to
Re: (Score:2)
You might be surprised to learn that people managed to get on airplanes before computers existed, and that they used to run entire airlines without a computer or an internet.
The point being that by using centralized control via computer, you create single point failures or at least are vulnerable to single point issues that cripple the entire system, or at least slow it down. If they did it all with typewriters and ink pens, they wouldn't have a single point failure (power inter
Computer control makes air travel viable (Score:2)
You might be surprised to learn that people managed to get on airplanes before computers existed, and that they used to run entire airlines without a computer or an internet.
Nobody has gotten on a commercial passenger airplane without computers being involved in decades. Yes they did used to run substantially smaller airlines without computers but given the scale of modern air travel that would be hugely inefficient and costly, not to mention even more error prone than it already is.
If they did it all with typewriters and ink pens, they wouldn't have a single point failure (power interruption) that inconvenienced a lot of people.
Power interruption is still a thing with pens and typewriters unless you don't care about being able to see what you are doing or operate the airport terminal. But never mind that, the loss of the
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
If we could backtrack far enough in chaos theory, the Press would go nuts with stories about how a butterfly flapping its wing in Texas wiped out the Eastern Seaboard with a h
Re: (Score:1)
If what you say is true, I'd rather be sitting at the gate then in the plane on the tarmac for hours! Seems like the problem was handled very well.
Re: (Score:1)
You are correct.
But they won't admit it.
Re: (Score:2)
And fly British Airways.
No thank you. I've done enough of that. They're full of pissy little rules.
China Southern surprised me recently with how good they were.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
One of their pissy little rules is you can take two (yes, 2!) items of hand luggage per person into the cabin like you always used to before the shitty low cost airlines came along and dictated you can only take one and thus have to cram a camera case into your "I'll keep this with me as it has essentials should my baggage get lost" undersized bag. Undersized because they shrank the maximum dimensions with zero publicity so you only found out you've had to pay extra to put your flight bag in the hold when y
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
> No thank you. I've done enough of that. They're full of pissy little rules.
Are they as bad as Southwest, who will kick you off the plane for wearing a turban, speaking your native language, or wearing a tank top?
Hard to say. I don't wear a turban and you catch me dead in a tank top.
My experience of Southwest is mostly to take a quick jaunt to Vegas. So the lack of service doesn't impinge much.
For long hauls flights, on Canada Air, United, American Airlines, Iceland Air, China Southern, Delta, British Airways and Lufhansa, CS is winning hands down. Iceland comes second. Canada Air is at the bottom followed closely by BA.
Re: (Score:2)
I'm not saying it's the Russians, but... (Score:3)
it's the Russians.
Re: (Score:1)
I'm virtually certain Hillary's campaign people are already drafting a statement to that effect
Slowest news day...evar? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Vueling are shite. I was so late with them last time I flew I waved at myself coming back.
Re: (Score:2)
But it wasn't a "computer glitch".
If you want to have your trip featured on Slashdot, you should put a 3D printed gun in your hand luggage and pay for your ticket in Bitcoin.
Re: (Score:2)
Let me tell you about every other trip I've taken through Chicago then.
As if I wasn't dreading my business trip to Chicago next week already, we have this. Why do I get the feeling I'm just going to land, get kicked in the balls by a TSA agent while shouting Welcome to America, have all my stuff stolen and then end up dying of old age in some queue.
Honestly this is the first time I'm going to a country I've not been to and not actually looked forward to it.
Re: (Score:2)
For American the news would be that they only had 2 hour flight delays due to a computer glitch. Maybe British Airways is working on changing expectations.
"We're sorry, an unexpected computer glitch caused our flights to be only 2
Re: (Score:2)
I once just stood in line for 9 hours with British Airways (still another 12 to get on a plane). If they get me home on the correct day I declare victory.
Re: (Score:2)
These are outstations for flag airlines that have few or even one hub airport.
From LAS, BA only flies to LHR. Depending on which Swiss city was referenced, GVA only connects with LHR and LGW, and ZRH only connects with LHR and LCY. All they have to do is get you on any plane and let the hub operation sort the rest out.
Re: (Score:2)
Er...two hour flight delays are now Slashdot-worthy? Let me tell you about every other trip I've taken through Chicago then.
Well you see, airlines that are in other parts of the world are typically well organised, this means things like delays are rear events and that makes them newsworthy.
Ah computers! (Score:1)
Doesn't it kill you when computers are blamed for problems or are given credit for infallibility?
Here we have a case of computers being blamed for the incompetence of people. Because let's face it, someone somewhere screwed up to cause this problem.
And then there is when you see a mistake or problem and you here, "the computer figured it out!", implying that you need to STFU - like whoever programmed it is infallible or whoever was entering the data is infallible.
When I'm in a snarky mood, I'll make some
Real reason for the delay (Score:1)
The delay was because 9 terrorists from Black-Lives-Matter entered the runaway illegally and chained themselves there to impede their removal.
Coinicdentally at the same time a computer glitch occured.
Re: (Score:2)
Why would people on a runway at London City affect computers at Gatwick or Heathrow airport?
[citation needed]
TCS strikes again (Score:5, Insightful)
BA just got done offshoring a lot of their IT operations to Tata, and from what I've been reading, TCS wrote the new software that's causing the issues. I'll give them benefit of the doubt and assume the software at least works. What I assume is happening is what is happening in IT departments all over the place. Offshore Vendor X delivers software with barely adequate documentation to a skeleton crew onshore group that has to try to make it work. And yes, I have relevant experience -- airline IT is one of those fields that you have to develop a lot of domain knowledge to even understand what's going on.
I have seen this in many different industries...they try to offshore something core to their business to a group of random Java programmers who have no clue what it is they're writing or what business process they're supporting. And because these offshore guys operate a revolving-door employment operation, anyone who actually does learn what's going on quickly leaves or becomes a manager -- thus starting the process again with a fresh new grad.
Until companies realize they save money in the long run by carefully managing a directly-engaged, fully involved workforce this will keep happening. You can't keep dead wood around forever, but some of the operations I've seen lately have basically been chopping down the tree and setting it on fire.
Fool me once, shame on me. Third time? (Score:1)
Yeah, sure, "glitch".
Try, intentional hack.
Tata Consultancy Services - experience certainty (Score:2)