Incident: Emergency Landing in Siberia Due to Navigation System Software Failure

Published Date: 2013-08-28

Postmortem Analysis
Timeline 1. The software failure incident happened on August 28, 2013. [20674]
System 1. Navigation system on board flight BA 039 [20674]
Responsible Organization 1. The navigation system software onboard the British Airways flight from London Heathrow to Beijing was responsible for causing the software failure incident [20674].
Impacted Organization 1. Passengers and crew on board the British Airways flight from London Heathrow to Beijing [20674]
Software Causes 1. The software cause of the failure incident was a malfunction of the flight software on board flight BA 039, leading to the failure of the navigation system during the flight from London Heathrow to Beijing [20674].
Non-software Causes 1. The failure incident was caused by a malfunction of the flight software on board flight BA 039, leading to the emergency landing in Siberia [20674].
Impacts 1. The British Airways flight from London Heathrow to Beijing had to make an emergency landing in eastern Siberia due to a navigation system failure, impacting the travel plans of 270 passengers and 16 crew members [20674].
Preventions 1. Regular maintenance and updates of the navigation system software could have potentially prevented the software failure incident [20674].
Fixes 1. Conduct a thorough investigation to identify the root cause of the navigation system failure incident [20674]. 2. Implement necessary software updates or patches to address the malfunction of the flight software on board flight BA 039 [20674]. 3. Ensure that BA engineers work on resolving the navigation equipment failure before the aircraft can be moved [20674].
References 1. The Siberian Times [20674]

Software Taxonomy of Faults

Category Option Rationale
Recurring multiple_organization (a) The software failure incident having happened again at one_organization: The article does not provide any information indicating that a similar software failure incident has happened before within the same organization (British Airways) or with its products and services. (b) The software failure incident having happened again at multiple_organization: The article mentions that Siberian airline S7 is a member of the same OneWorld Alliance as British Airways. This could imply that similar incidents related to software failures might have occurred with other airlines within the OneWorld Alliance, although specific details about such incidents are not provided in the article [20674].
Phase (Design/Operation) design (a) The software failure incident in the article was related to the design phase. The incident occurred due to a malfunction of the flight software on board flight BA 039, leading to the failure of the navigation system during the flight from London Heathrow to Beijing [20674]. The navigation equipment failure was considered serious, requiring BA engineers to fly out to Siberia before the aircraft could be moved, indicating a design-related issue introduced during the system development or updates.
Boundary (Internal/External) within_system (a) within_system: The software failure incident in the article was related to the navigation system of the British Airways flight from London Heathrow to Beijing. The article mentions that the emergency landing was made in eastern Siberia after the navigation system failed onboard the flight [20674]. This indicates that the failure originated from within the system itself, specifically the navigation software malfunctioning.
Nature (Human/Non-human) non-human_actions (a) The software failure incident in the article was due to non-human actions, specifically a malfunction of the flight software on board flight BA 039, leading to the emergency landing in Siberia [20674].
Dimension (Hardware/Software) hardware (a) The software failure incident in the article was related to hardware. The article mentions that the British Airways flight from London Heathrow to Beijing made an emergency landing in eastern Siberia after its navigation system failed. Specifically, it states, "The plane made an emergency landing in Irkutsk because of the failure of navigation equipment" [20674]. (b) The software failure incident in the article was not explicitly mentioned to be related to software issues.
Objective (Malicious/Non-malicious) non-malicious (a) The software failure incident in the article was non-malicious. The incident was attributed to a malfunction of the flight software on board flight BA 039, leading to the emergency landing in Siberia due to the failure of navigation equipment. There is no indication in the article that the failure was caused by malicious intent or any deliberate actions to harm the system [20674].
Intent (Poor/Accidental Decisions) unknown (a) The software failure incident in the article was not explicitly linked to poor decisions. The incident was primarily attributed to a malfunction of the flight software on board flight BA 039, leading to the emergency landing in Siberia due to the failure of navigation equipment. There is no indication in the article that poor decisions contributed to the software failure incident [20674].
Capability (Incompetence/Accidental) accidental (a) The software failure incident in the article was not explicitly attributed to development incompetence. The article mentions that the emergency landing in Siberia was caused by a malfunction of the flight software on board flight BA 039. However, there is no indication in the article that this malfunction was due to lack of professional competence by humans or the development organization [20674]. (b) The software failure incident in the article appears to be accidental. The article describes the emergency landing in eastern Siberia after the navigation system failed on the British Airways flight from London Heathrow to Beijing. This suggests that the failure was accidental rather than intentionally caused [20674].
Duration temporary The software failure incident in the article was temporary. The article mentions that the British Airways flight from London Heathrow to Beijing made an emergency landing in eastern Siberia after its navigation system failed. The malfunction of the flight software on board flight BA 039 was specifically highlighted as the reason for the emergency landing. Additionally, it was stated that the navigation problem was seen as serious and required BA engineers to fly out to Siberia before the aircraft could be moved, indicating a specific issue with the software that needed to be addressed [20674].
Behaviour crash, omission, other (a) crash: The software failure incident in the article can be categorized as a crash since the navigation system failed, leading to the emergency landing of the British Airways flight in Siberia. The system lost its state and was unable to perform its intended function of guiding the aircraft to its destination [20674]. (b) omission: The incident can also be classified as an omission since the navigation system omitted to perform its intended function of providing accurate guidance for the flight from London Heathrow to Beijing, resulting in the need for an emergency landing in Siberia [20674]. (c) timing: There is no specific mention in the article indicating that the software failure incident was related to timing issues where the system performed its intended functions but at the wrong time. (d) value: The software failure incident does not align with a value-related failure where the system performs its intended functions incorrectly. (e) byzantine: The incident does not exhibit characteristics of a byzantine failure where the system behaves erroneously with inconsistent responses and interactions. (f) other: The other behavior exhibited by the software failure incident is the need for British Airways engineers to fly out to Siberia to address the serious navigation equipment failure before the aircraft could be moved, indicating a significant impact and complexity of the failure [20674].

IoT System Layer

Layer Option Rationale
Perception processing_unit The software failure incident reported in the article [20674] was related to the processing_unit of the cyber-physical system. The article mentions that the emergency landing in Siberia was caused by a malfunction of the flight software on board flight BA 039. Specifically, it states, "Passengers were told there was a malfunction of the flight software on board flight BA 039" and "The plane made an emergency landing in Irkutsk because of the failure of navigation equipment." These statements indicate that the failure was related to the processing_unit aspect of the cyber-physical system.
Communication connectivity_level The software failure incident reported in Article 20674 was related to the communication layer of the cyber physical system. The incident involved a British Airways flight from London Heathrow to Beijing making an emergency landing in Siberia due to a navigation system failure. Passengers were informed that there was a malfunction of the flight software on board flight BA 039, indicating a failure at the communication layer of the system. The failure of the navigation equipment was considered serious, requiring BA engineers to fly out to Siberia before the aircraft could be moved, further emphasizing the communication layer aspect of the failure [20674].
Application TRUE The software failure incident reported in the article [20674] was related to the application layer of the cyber physical system. The article mentions that the British Airways flight from London Heathrow to Beijing made an emergency landing in eastern Siberia after its navigation system failed due to a malfunction of the flight software on board flight BA 039. This malfunction of the flight software falls under the category of failure due to contributing factors introduced by bugs, operating system errors, unhandled exceptions, and incorrect usage, which aligns with the definition of a failure at the application layer of the cyber physical system.

Other Details

Category Option Rationale
Consequence no_consequence (a) death: People lost their lives due to the software failure - No mention of any deaths due to the software failure incident in the provided article [20674].
Domain transportation The software failure incident reported in the news article [20674] was related to the transportation industry. The incident involved a British Airways flight from London Heathrow to Beijing, which had to make an emergency landing in Siberia due to a navigation system failure. The failure of the navigation equipment on board flight BA 039 led to the emergency landing with 270 passengers and 16 crew on board. The malfunction of the flight software was specifically mentioned as the cause of the emergency landing, highlighting the critical role of software in the transportation industry. Additionally, the article mentioned that the navigation problem was considered serious, requiring BA engineers to fly out to Siberia to address the issue before the aircraft could be moved, further emphasizing the impact of the software failure on transportation operations.

Sources

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