Two years ago, almost to the day, a Spanish airliner belonging to Spanair crashed just after takeoff. Of the 172 people on board, 154 were killed. New information now reveals that one of the airplane’s central computer systems was infected with malware, and that the crash was likely directly attributable to this malware infection.
The infected system was one which reported back to the airline control center, and was to sound an alarm in the event of equipment malfunction. In fact, there were malfunctions, and the alarms never sounded, due to the malware.
According to Jamz Yaneeza, a researcher with Internet security outfit Trend Micro, the malware on the Spanair’s computer was a Trojan horse.
While the mechanical failures which have been discovered in the ongoing investigation may not themselves have been a result of the Trojan that was onboard the central computer system, the fact that the system did not detect the mechanical issues, and did not sound an alarm, is being blamed on the malware.
O. Sami Saydjari, president of Cyber Defense Agency, points out that “Any computer that is connected to a network is vulnerable to a malware infection.”
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“Standards have not been set to protect critical infrastructure,” added Saydjari.
As we enter an era when increasingly almost everything relies on some sort of computerized controller, this is a sobering thought.
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I don’t know the cause of the silenced alarm, but this was totally aircrew complacency. The flaps weren’t extended causing the minimum speed for flight to increase drastically. The security camera at the airport shows a plane stalling which is due to not enough airspeed. I’ve watched two different planes crash the same way and both were caused by the copilot echoing the checklist call without actually checking the item in question. I treated every flight as a first flight and never had a problem. “Familiarity breeds contempt”, and crashes. ;-)