"There was no indication as of yet that this was a nefarious attack against us. It’s just a telecommunication outage as of right now."
ADDED: From that NYT live coverage: "Friday’s outage comes just a few days after the F.A.A. announced it would begin rolling out an artificial intelligence tool nationwide to help controllers avoid delays.... SMART, short for Strategic Management of Airspace, Routes and Trajectories was made by an A.I. company called ASI, or Air Space Intelligence, which won an $875 million contract for the program...."
Posts
49 comments:
Maybe someone trying to hack the flight control system like they hacked the super market freezers in France?
They spoiled toons of food.
Maybe Iran is behind it.
The Conga Lines at the airports are already epic.
Too bad I'm not out there, picking off the stranded. I live far from the airport.
Probably just a coincidence but a large cargo ship (bulk carrier?) just T-Boned a river cruise ship in New Orleans. The ship rolled on its side and sank in a few minutes. Fortunately, the river is not that deep and about half the ship is still above water.
This seems to be in the air traffic control comms system. That system is so old that it is still running on floppy disks. It could have been hacked or it could have simply wheezed its last breath. Sure glad I'm not traveling this week.
John Henry
Are there still airplanes without radios? I had one when I quit with 1200 hours to take up long distance bicycle riding instead. Map on knee and mag compass, no dependency on any external thing except see and avoid.
Friday the 13th in Spades this year.
Similar to the one in 2023, no doubt. Of course, Trump is to blame for this one. Because he always is.
The lingering effect is crews timing out with no way to replace them.
Nothing a Triumphal Arch can’t fix.
I wonder if the grounded flights has to do with the Microsoft 365 crisis in some way, if Air Traffic Control has lost some kind of communication capability that relies on it, for non-flight related, but business-critical communications.
Apparently 12 people are missing in the river boat allision incident, which happened while it was docked at the Port Authority's pier.
Weather radar websites are down too.
"The National Weather Service reported nationwide internet and communication issues on Friday, Nov. 13, warning that some weather products may be unavailable or outdated on its websites."
Just a coincidence, this coming a day after the Microsoft meltdown and a week or so after the freezers in Europe were hacked. Nothing to see here, all a coincidence.
"Apparently 12 people are missing in the river boat allision incident, which happened while it was docked at the Port Authority's pier. "
The news is saying everyone has been accounted for.
The telecommunications outage is due - more likely than not - to the ancient equipment that the FAA has. It is all last century.
The sainted Sec. Buttegig never upgraded it. He wasted time and money on racist highways and EV charging stations.
Duffy, on the other hand, has begun to upgrade the equipment.
Pete Buttegig never pays a political price for his demonstrated and repeated incompetence.
The system was switched to a new AI system 3 days ago.
Hopefully it won’t mess up the weekend football games.
John Henry is absolutely right about the FAA's floppy disks.
Pete knew this and did nothing.
Meanwhile the transportation secretary is a former reality show contestant and Fox host.
Fox News headline four days ago: "EXCLUSIVE: Trump's FAA touts new AI-powered tool helping thousands of passengers avoid flight delays"
The Trump administration touted that a new FAA artificial intelligence system called SMART (Strategic Management of Airspace, Routes and Trajectories) is cutting flight times by more than 10 minutes on average.
Around the same time (November 7), President Trump also spoke about aviation speed during a visit to a space center, noting that the industry needs to push for faster travel and technology updates rather than accepting slower progress compared to decades past. Very coincidental FASTER FASTER .....HURRIEDER AND HURRIEDER SAID ALICE!
Dave - the current resident of the White House deserves none of the blame? What about the president before Biden? Forgot his name.
Just checking in to see if the usual idiots are blaming Trump over something in which he has no control.
Sure enough ....
Jim - I was just responding to Dave’s comment blaming Biden.
Look Jensen, we were only kidding. OK?
Scary news for air traffic, but really sad news out of New Orleans. That is horrific.
IUD - Do F off.
Inflation is rising again, half the Cabinet is reportedly living on military bases out of fear, sensitive U.S. chips are finding their way to Chinese interests while the Trump administration looks the other way, we’re stuck in an endless war with Iran, there’s a mass exodus at the DOJ, and flights are grounded.
At least we’re getting a ballroom bigger than the rest of the compound. 🤣
I still read "outage" as "outrage" and wonder what horrors Microsoft has committed now.
>Indefinitely Extended Excursion™️ said...
Meanwhile the transportation secretary is a former reality show contestant and Fox host.<
Yeah, that is simply ridiculous, isn't it. Pathetic that Trump couldn't get someone qualified for the position, you know, like the mayor of Bumfuck, Indiana, for instance.
Meanwhile..the other Fox & Friends Weekend host is now running the Pentagon.
Also from the NYT:
"A spokeswoman for the National Weather Service said a screenshot circulating online that claimed its weather radar was down was “outdated.”
The Weather Service “has not experienced a disruption to its radar systems today,” said Kim Doster, the spokeswoman."
Whats all this i hear about an Telecommunications Outrage?
Why is everyone so upset? I like Telecommunications.
Oh wait... what? Oh well that's different. Never mind.
Is IEED North Korean or Soviet?
“Map on knee and mag compass, no dependency on any external thing except see and avoid.”
..:that’s great rhhardin- the 20 something airline pilot on the family just said he can land his passengers like that, too…
>Indefinitely Extended Excursion™️ said...
Meanwhile..the other Fox & Friends Weekend host is now running the Pentagon.<
Really; that guy is just absurd, isn't he. I would have preferred another ceremonial Negro for the job, myself. Well, you know, one that wouldn't go AWOL on us, anyway...
And this:
"Friday’s outage comes just a few days after the F.A.A. announced it would begin rolling out an artificial intelligence tool nationwide to help controllers avoid delays. That tool was first unveiled for the Washington, D.C., area airports two months ago, on a day when problems with air traffic communications failures also grounded hundreds of flights, after a circuit failed and it was discovered that contractors had accidentally ripped through a fiber line that was supposed to serve as its backup.
The new A.I. system had previously been implemented in a limited test program in late September. SMART, short for Strategic Management of Airspace, Routes and Trajectories, was made by an A.I. company called ASI, or Air Space Intelligence, which won an $875 million contract for the program.
In a social media post on Friday, the company said, “The current ground stop is not based on or a result of the SMART system, any product of ASI or our integration with FAA and ATC.”
They would say that, of course, but the conclusion-jumping seems unwarranted. Maybe one of you tech wizards--Dinky? IEE? Althouse?--can explain to this layman how it is you believe that there is a connection between the two. Or between the implementation of SMART and the last Nationwide Ground Stop in 2023.
Here we go. Every self-assumed expert is going to tell us what's up. In the coming days when we know what really happened there will be no appologies from a single one who was wrong.
I'll bet someone didn't turn off their cellphone before taking off. It was bound to happen sooner or later you know. We had a perfect record for decades with everyone turning off every one of their electronic devices on each takeoff. But then POOF, the perfect record was shattered and this happens.
You can’t set up a comprehensive test harness for AI
""Apparently 12 people are missing in the river boat allision incident"
According to anonymous sources, Trump suggested that riverboats should carry less life preservers.
“𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘶𝘳𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘨𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘱 𝘪𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘣𝘢𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘰𝘯 𝘰𝘳 𝘢 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘶𝘭𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘚𝘔𝘈𝘙𝘛 𝘴𝘺𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘮, 𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘥𝘶𝘤𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘈𝘚𝘐 𝘰𝘳 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘍𝘈𝘈 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘈𝘛𝘊.”
I don’t think anyone has established a connection, and I’m not claiming one exists. But the timing warrants questions. The FAA expanded SMART nationwide to all 22 ATC centers just days before the outage. It’s a cloud-based system integrating approximately 200 data streams into air traffic management.
ASI’s denial is certainly relevant, but it isn’t a substitute for an independent technical investigation. And the fact that the 2023 outage involved a different system doesn’t answer questions about this one.
The question isn’t whether we can prove a connection from the outside. It’s whether investigators have thoroughly examined the possibility and can explain what went wrong.
Unconfirmed reports from sources inside the FAA said that Trump was seen unplugging an Air Traffic server to plug in his hair dryer. Democrats promise to investigate fully.
I'll leave Indefinitely Extended to play mumblety peg. The interesting number I heard was that there were 3,100 commercial planes in the air when this grounding order was issued. That's just an average day in US commercial aviation. The real question is how do they all get down safely. In aviation, takeoffs are optional--but landings are mandatory. If you've got failed communications--that's a real problem. And in terms of spotting airplanes at airports? All of a sudden there is a demand for 3,100 new parking spaces!
""This isn’t another 9/11"
Unless we can blame it on Trump, then it's much worse, even approaching a Jan. 6th.
I asked AI to write a bland piece blaming Trump. It's pretty funny. Sounds familiar.
Air Traffic Stoppage Raises Questions About Trump Administration's Handling of Aviation
WASHINGTON — A nationwide disruption in air traffic has raised fresh questions about President Donald Trump's approach to aviation oversight, according to government officials familiar with airplanes.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss airplanes publicly, said the stoppage reflected broader concerns about the administration's management of things that fly.
"This is the kind of situation that raises serious questions," said one official familiar with both airplanes and airports. "When airplanes stop flying, people notice."
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether the president was personally familiar with the affected airplanes.
A second official, who requested anonymity to speak candidly about aviation, said the disruption was consistent with concerns that have circulated among people knowledgeable about the subject.
"Airplanes are supposed to move," the official said. "When they don't, you have to ask why."
Trump has previously expressed confidence in his administration's ability to manage transportation issues, though critics say confidence alone is unlikely to restore air traffic.
It remains unclear when normal operations will resume or whether additional airplanes could be affected.
Government officials familiar with the situation said they were continuing to monitor developments closely.
"I asked AI to write a bland piece blaming Trump."
You are clearly not the only one employing that technique.
Looks like I picked the wrong week to give up ketamine.
'...I don’t think anyone has established a connection, and I’m not claiming one exists....'
Getting some real 100% high-octane conclusion-jumping dopamine hits this afternoon, emphasis on the 'Dope'.
Many people in here have expertise in one subject or another and offer some insights from time to time, but some commenters seem to be polymaths of the highest order, being experts in every subject raised day after day, and they have led me to the conclusion that Trump is both all powerful and totally incompetent at the same time. Like a drunken god on Mount Olympus.
We are truly blessed to have them with us again today.
I actually did a 30 year stretch in telecom, and we saw something like this a couple of times, but back in the early nineties, when MCI was down, you could dial the prefix for AT&T and avoid the problem, but I do remember one time when new signalling software had been rolled out, and since the switches talked to other carriers, the outages cascaded, but in that case all you had to do was roll back the software and bring everything back up. I would imagine that this will be a lot more complicated, but here’s hoping it’s not.
Post a Comment
Please use the comments forum to respond to the post. Don't fight with each other. Be substantive... or interesting... or funny. Comments should go up immediately... unless you're commenting on a post older than 4 days. Then you have to wait for us to moderate you through. It's also possible to get shunted into spam by the machine. We try to keep an eye on that and release the miscaught good stuff. We do delete some comments, but not for viewpoint... for bad faith. Also: No italics, even briefly. Use asterisks for emphasis. And don't play with the format by changing fonts or using boldface or all caps. Never include more than one extra line break between paragraphs.