Latest / Technology Now / Air Traffic Control: Why just tiny errors can ground planes
Transcript
- Aubrey Lovell (00:10): Hello, and welcome back, friends, to Technology Now, a weekly show from Hewlett Packard Enterprise where we take what's happening in the world and explore how it's changing the way organizations are using technology. We're your hosts, Aubrey Lovell ... Michael Bird (00:23): And Michael Bird. And in this episode, we 're taking a look at air traffic control, after a series of recent incidents where seemingly simple errors have seen entire systems nearly grind to a halt, causing days of disruption to millions of people. So we're going to be looking at where the problems lie. We'll be looking at what can be done about it and where the future of air traffic control lies as our skies gets busier. And perhaps most importantly, we'll be asking why it matters, besides being late to meetings and conferences for our organizations. And we'll be asking you, our audience, for your recommendations on the books which have changed your year. Aubrey Lovell (01:03): Nice. So if you're the kind of person who needs to know why what's going on in the world matters to your organization, this podcast is definitely for you. And if you haven't yet, subscribe to your podcast app of choice so you don't miss out. All right. Let's get into it. Michael Bird (01:18): Let's do it. Aubrey Lovell (01:22): Okay, Michael. So I know we love a stat here on Technology Now. Michael Bird (01:27): We certainly do. Aubrey Lovell (01:27): And we're never one to shy away from a mind-bending number. So according to Statista and the Federal Aviation Administration, in 2023, there are due to be over 34 million airline flights worldwide. Michael Bird (01:43): Wow. Aubrey Lovell (01:44): And that's not including countless million light aircraft and helicopter flights. And all commercial flights carried seven billion passengers in 2022, using some 70 billion gallons or 265 billion liters of aviation fuel. So it's just mind blowing. And all of this is to say there's a lot of planes in the sky, around 8,000 of them at the time you're listening to this. And for much of their journey, they'll need to be strictly corralled from the ground by the air traffic control service of whoever's territory they're flying over. Michael Bird (02:22): And most of the time, it works very well. There's been a huge investment in the last two decades in updating and replacing ancient air traffic control systems in much of the world, making sure that our skies are fit for the 21st century. In 2016, the US Federal Aviation Administration finally decommissioned its 40-year-old system, called Host, in favor of more modern options. And until the late '90s the UK was using a number of 1960s mainframe systems to power its air traffic control system, each with around nine megabytes of memory. The UK is currently working on a pan-European system called Single European Sky, which aims to give all of Europe access across each other's systems to link up everything from journey times to maintenance schedules. Meanwhile, the US is experimenting with AI-infused air traffic control systems to assist what is famously one of the most stressful jobs in the world. Aubrey Lovell (03:23): All are neat ideas, but it's no mean feat modernizing a system that needs to be on 24/7, 365 days a year with no downtime, especially one that needs to interact with hundreds of users and thousands of data points a second. In fact, developing and transitioning the US from its old Host system to the current one, called ERAM, costs $3.5 billion. And for the most part, they have been very successful transformation programs. Michael Bird (03:52): But that doesn't mean they haven't been without their issues. And 2023 has been the year of the air traffic glitch. In January, an issue at the FAA caused the system responsible for relaying safety bulletins to fail, grounding thousands of flights over the course of just one day. Meanwhile, in August, the UK's National Air Traffic Control suffered a glitch which turned its flight data checking system from automatic to manual over the course of several hours. And that essentially meant that the system wasn't being updated with the details of thousands of flights, which couldn't take off, including my sister-in-law. Aubrey Lovell (04:36): Oh, no. Michael Bird (04:36): Much to her annoyance. Aubrey Lovell (04:38): So why does this matter? It's pretty obvious, but in both cases, thousands of planes and countless passengers were stuck on the ground because of a single issue, bad data entry. And in the January case, it was a, quote, "Damaged database file which had to be manually reconstructed over the course of the morning." And in the UK case, the exact cause is still being determined, but it's thought that a flight entering the UK over France had some incorrect data attached to it, which triggered an alert in the system and simply turned off automatic data entry, which seems like overkill until you realize that the data is a pretty important part of ensuring passenger safety. And incidentally, we've put sources to those quotes in the show notes. Michael Bird (05:22): Now, in both cases, there is a lesson to be learned for us all, though, even the most ambitious and well-thought-out systems can be brought down by simple bad data entry. Protecting yourself against that whilst ensuring your critical systems don't let anyone down should be something that every IT decision maker plans for or at least is aware of because, if it can happen to two of the busiest air traffic control systems in the world in the space of nine months, it could happen to you. Aubrey Lovell (05:51): Well, hopefully, that doesn't happen to me because I will be flying next week. And that's why you should care about air traffic control. Michael Bird (06:02): All right. Well, next up, it's down to you, our audience, as we open the floor for you to give your recommendations on books which have changed the way that you look at the world, life, and business in the last 12 months. They could be technology-based, they could've changed the way that you work, or they could've just made you look at the world in a slightly different way. Aubrey Lovell (06:20): And if you want to share your recommendations, there's a link in the podcast description. Just record a voice note on your phone and send it over. We'd love to hear it. Adam Bender (06:29): My name is Adam Bender and a book that changed my perspective over the last couple of years was Who by Geoff Smart and Randy Street. It's a hiring book and an HR book and a general new age business book, but one of the lines that they talk about early and that really sticks with you, or at least it stuck with me, was, "You really can't hire based on gut feel or emotion exclusively, but you can definitely choose not to hire someone based on gut feel." And whether I like it or not, I think that it's right. Every time it hasn't worked, it's because I had some sort of reservation or hesitation. So I would definitely recommend Who for anyone that's either looking to build a team in a traditional business setting or, honestly, any other tangential setting. If you're a coach of a team or you're a parent and you just want to understand a different perspective of talking through things or thinking through things, I think it's a really more versatile book than it actually thinks it is, which ends up, to me, making it feel better, as well. Aubrey Lovell (07:39): All right. Thanks so much for that. And now, it's time for Today I Learned. It's the part of the show where we each share something amazing, or at least important, we've learned about in the world of technology this week. We're going to take it in turns to talk about an organization doing something we think you need to know about. All right, Michael, I reckon you should go first. Michael Bird (08:00): Sure thing. Well, today, Aubrey, I've been learning about a new prototype blockchain-based chat service, which was unveiled at the 10th IEEE International Conference on Cybersecurity and Cloud Computing, more snappily known as CSS Cloud. Now, it's the product of a collaboration between several universities and private companies led by Syracuse University and came about as a result of the research team's increasing frustration at hackers stealing data, companies collecting and selling it, and mass government surveillance. (08:32): They created a test system whereby users sign up using a public and private key via a digital contract, which are stored across dozens of global nodes. Because it's decentralized and in the blockchain, in theory, it can't be hacked or watched, in theory, though intelligence agencies can be sneaky like that. Now, the chat can't be edited by outsiders, but can still be verified and its origins logged by the people involved in the chat. The organizers say it'll make chatting more secure all around and protect our data, and there's already a commercial version in the works once they've overcome some speed and scaling issues. Pretty cool. Aubrey Lovell (09:11): That is pretty cool. And speaking of cool, Michael, are you a fan of wind? Michael Bird (09:17): I am the biggest fan of wind. Do you know what they say? "That Michael, big fan of wind." Aubrey Lovell (09:22): Just a huge fan. Well- Michael Bird (09:23): Yep, that's me. Aubrey Lovell (09:24): ... the good news is the world record has just been broken for power generation by a single turbine. Unsurprisingly, it was the world's biggest turbine, a 1- megawatt monstrosity based at an offshore wind farm in China's southeastern Foshan Province. And in recent typhoon conditions, it generated enough energy in 24 hours to power 170,000 homes all on its own. So how big does a turbine have to be to do all of that? Well, very. The diameter of the rotor is 252 meters or 827 feet- Michael Bird (10:02): Wow. Aubrey Lovell (10:02): ... meaning each blade is as long as a football field. I'm trying to picture this. Michael Bird (10:07): Wow. Aubrey Lovell (10:07): It's incredible. Michael Bird (10:08): Wow. Aubrey Lovell (10:09): So it sits on top of a tower, 146 meters or about 479 feet tall. And for reference- Michael Bird (10:16): Wow. Aubrey Lovell (10:16): ... that's 50 stories high. Can you imagine maintenancing that thing? Oh, my gosh. It's also very intelligent. It's got intelligent AI-powered blades which angle to get the most efficient use of wind out of the system without damaging it. So that's pretty incredible, right? Michael Bird (10:33): Wow. Yeah, that's amazing. Goodness. Aubrey Lovell (10:35): It really is. And as promised, we'll drop a couple of links in the podcast description for more on these topics. Michael Bird (10:44): Right. Well, we're getting towards the end of the show, which means it is time for This Weekend History- Aubrey Lovell (10:51): Weekend History. Michael Bird (10:53): ... which is a look at the monumental events in the world of business and technology which has changed our lives. Now, the clue last week was it's 1959 and the moon meets the moon. Do you know what it is? It is, of course, the Soviet space probe Luna 2 becoming the first manmade object to reach the surface of the moon. In fact, it was the first to reach any celestial body. Luna 2 or Moon 2 crashed into the surface of the moon after a mission which saw it measuring earth's radiation belts and trying to work out if the moon had something similar. It made an almighty bang, hitting the surface at 7,500 miles per hour, that's around 12,000 kilometers per hour, and sending up a plume of dust and gas, which spread over 400 miles or about 643 kilometers wide in the thin lunar atmosphere. Wow. (11:47): Oh, and if that wasn't enough mess, it also carried two sort of exploding footballs, which went off before impact and threw over 70 metallic shields out over the moon with USSR and details of the mission on them. Now, I'm not a fan of littering, but it was still a very cool proof of concept mission. Aubrey Lovell (12:07): I wonder how the moon feels about that. Anyway, for next week, the clue is turn that frown upside down or left to right. Any ideas? Don't let it slip. All right. That brings us to the end of Technology Now for this week. Do keep those suggestions for life-changing books coming, using the link in the podcast description. Michael Bird (12:27): Until then, thank you all so much for joining us. Technology Now is hosted by Aubrey Lovell and myself, Michael Bird. And this episode was produced by Sam Datapolen and Zoe Anderson, with production support from Harry Morton, Zoe Anderson, Alicia Kempson, Alison Paisley, Alyssa Mitri, Camilla Patel, Alex Podmore, and Chloe Sewell. Technology Now is a Lower Street production for Hewlett Packard Enterprise, and we'll see you next week. Aubrey Lovell (12:52): Make it a great day.