They violated one of the most basic unwritten rules of software installation: NEVER do a software upgrade to a 24-hour per day operation before a weekend!
Making it more egregious, Friday is the second busiest flying day of the week with Sunday being the busiest.
What rational person would pick a Friday afternoon to install new, largely untested, software affecting the entire nation's airspace management? They should have recommended 2 AM on a Tuesday morning. Tuesday is the least busiest travel day of the week. Oh yea, and require fully documented test procedures and a 30-minute back-out and restore plan.
According to Forbes reporting, $25bn was allocated to fix the air traffic system to begin to work off $115bn in backlogs. Friday was not a Biden problem--it was a Republican problem. In fact, However, as of late 2026, critics and some officials note that only a fraction of certain related FAA modernization funds have been fully awarded or spent. (Brave search) AND, now they are requesting $15bn more!
We have seen the headlines about how many people were affected by the four-hour airspace shutdown. As of this morning, there were no Southwest flights with available seats for purchase flying from West Palm Beach to Baltimore. Recovery is going to take days and it is worse because of the volume of travelers on Friday and Sunday.
They may have wanted to go home for the weekend, but that didn't happen. This is a classic example of software engineers not understanding how something will affect operations and no adult being present in the room where the decision was being made.
Bring in the clowns!
-- Bob Doan, Tequesta, FL
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment