Yikes! FAA Grounds All US Flights Because Contractors Made a Whoopsie!

If you ever wanted evidence that contractors shouldn’t be let loose on a computer, here’s your proof; the FAA has grounded all US flights because contractors, in a monumental error, accidentally deleted crucial flight files.

The bummer news was announced earlier today. Without going into too much detail, the huge mistake happened yesterday morning in a software development environment owned and maintained by one of the FAA’s contractors. The contractors were making some changes to the system, but during the process they deleted some key flight data files.

To put it mildly, this was not good. As you can imagine, those deleted files are essential for the safe operation of US flights, so the FAA had no choice but to ground all flights.

The Steps Being Taken To Get US Flights Running Again

After the incident, the FAA swiftly:

• Confirmed the safety of current air traffic
• Reset and secured the software development environment.
• Demanded that the vendor take action to identify e causes and restore the lost files.
• Initiated an internal review to look at their own processes.

The good news is that since then we’ve been steadily seeing more and more US flights taking off again, which is a relief to those stuck in the airports. But until the FAA’s review is complete and everything is confirmed as safe, no US flights will be permitted.

A Word of Warning to Contractors

If one thing is clear from this incident, it’s that contractors need to be extra, super, ultra careful when tinkering with things. When it comes to flying, double-checks, triple-checks and quadruple-checks don’t go amiss.

Otherwise, you could find yourself with the FAA on your back, screaming in frustration and kneading their temples.

Oh, and one other thing – if you’re ever starting to doubt yourself while on a computer, just imagine a flight full of angry passengers who haven’t moved an inch in the past six hours. That always works for me…