
Contact Lost with Planes One by One as FAA Fire Spread - forrest_t
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-10-02/contact-lost-with-planes-one-by-one-as-faa-center-fire-spread.html
======
Someone1234
Nobody is talking about the key issue: In the US they have been intentionally
consolidating ATCs[0] for the last thirty years as a cost saving measure, and
there is more consolidation yet to come.

I linked an article at [0] titled "House Subcommittee Challenges ATC
Consolidation Efforts" and you're likely assuming that the House is trying to
block consolidation, but the truth is exactly the opposite: in 2012 the FAA
were trying to stop/slow the consolidation and the House were pushing it
through, the "challenge" is that the FAA wasn't going fast enough!

Yet the mainstream media aren't discussing this at all...

It is very easy to blame a single disgruntled employee for all the disruption
but consider how many other things could cause a single ATC location to go
black (e.g. bombing, aircrash, natural distaster, accidental fire, extreme
power surge, etc).

Yet the consolidations will no doubt continue, and instead of them looking at
the root cause of this issue (that too much sky is controlled from a single
location) they will blame the employee and move on like nothing happened.

This incident was far more serious than the recent White House break-in, but
yet heads are rolling for the White House thing while absolutely nothing is
being asked about this one!

[0][http://www.ainonline.com/aviation-
news/ainsafety/2012-06-04/...](http://www.ainonline.com/aviation-
news/ainsafety/2012-06-04/house-subcommittee-challenges-atc-consolidation-
efforts)

~~~
toomuchtodo
Air traffic control in the US should continue to be consolidated, but with the
ability to control the entire US airspace from any one control center.
Redundant fiber, servers, RF gear, all that jazz (ADS-B/NextGen is going to
make this much easier, as well as Iridium now deploying ADS-B receivers on
their new satellites deployed).

Disclaimer: Private pilot, have sat with several controllers for ~4 hours at
ZAU during an open house while they moved traffic.

~~~
anigbrowl
_the ability to control the entire US airspace from any one control center_

Hmm, if things are so bad that multiple regional centers are offline then it
might be time to ground everything temporarily - I suppose this is what you're
driving at, but I also imagine an unlikely-but-possible scenario where someone
subverts an ATC, locks everyone else out, and then wreaks havoc.

------
mbillie1
> The full Facebook post, obtained by Bloomberg, contained an anti-U.S. rant
> calling the government guilty of “immoral and unethical acts.”

Is it necessarily anti-U.S. to accuse the government of immoral and unethical
acts? Surely most of us would agree that the government is guilty of immoral
and unethical acts, although political leanings might have us point at
_different specific_ acts.

It is concerning that, yet again, we see criticism of the government equated
with being "anti-U.S." or somehow traitorous (even if in this case the actions
arguably were).

~~~
__david__
Yes, the wording is troubling, though it's hard to contest it without being
able to read it myself. Is there an unedited copy of his post anywhere online
yet?

~~~
polarix
[http://imgur.com/wClCcYy](http://imgur.com/wClCcYy)

[http://pastebin.com/A08VsdDs](http://pastebin.com/A08VsdDs)

~~~
cmdrfred
_So I 'm gonna smoke this blunt and move on_

If I was his defence lawyer I'd try to play it off like a big stoned
misunderstanding. Whoops dropped my blunt into the server room!

------
CapitalistCartr
"The attack was thorough and carried out by someone who knew the system
intimately -- down to removing steel sheathing on data cables to destroy them,
according to three people with knowledge of the incident."

They need a Two-Man Policy/No Lone Zone. We used that system in the Air Force
and it was completely effective.

~~~
bentcorner
I'm curious - is it effective because having another person there discourages
these types of attacks, or that having another person there means that they
can actively intervene in the event of something like this happening?

~~~
judk
What is the probability of one person wanting to do damage? Square that.

Now consider that even if two people wanted to do damage, each might not know
and trust the other to allow them.

~~~
ceejayoz
> What is the probability of one person wanting to do damage? Square that.

What's the probability of one person wanting to do damage and having a
momentary opportunity to smack the other person in the head with a hammer?
Substantially more doable.

~~~
SoftwareMaven
But you've now significantly dropped your original odds because your person
who wants to do damage now has to be willing and capable of serious violence.

------
pessimizer
"Minutes before the attack, Howard posted a message on Facebook saying he was
'about to take out ZAU and my life,' using the FAA’s three-letter call sign
for the center, according to the FBI agent. The full Facebook post, obtained
by Bloomberg, contained an anti-U.S. rant calling the government guilty of
'immoral and unethical acts.'"

More evidence that it is literally impossible for the US media to 'suspect' a
White non-Muslim to be a terrorist.

[http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-09-26/man-charged-with-
se...](http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-09-26/man-charged-with-setting-air-
traffic-control-center-fire.html)

"'WAKE UP!' said the message to those authorized to read what’s been
identified as Howard’s Facebook page. “This is a gov’t by the people, for the
people and of the people which right now equates to immoral and unethical
acts. That’s why terrorists and 3rd world nations hate us, because our tax
dollars go to more unrest than rest.'

"'So we deserve the retribution from people who do not have the same ability
for education, work and way of life,' the writer said.

"'Take a hard look in the mirror, I have,' the poster continued in a portion
of the message quoted by the FBI. 'And this is why I am about to take out ZAU
and my life.'"

~~~
madaxe_again
What a terrible thing to say. How can the actions of a state be immoral? The
state defines morality, and is therefore always in the right. This guy is
clearly insane.

God bless America.

------
tantalor
> The attacker also knew the system’s multiple backups and was able to damage
> or destroy those key links in a short period of time

Then they aren't very good "backups", i.e., they are too close to eachother.

~~~
ars
They both serve the same building, so they kind of have to be close together.

~~~
krschultz
They could easily be in separate rooms, in separate parts of the building.
That seems like a minimum precaution. What if there was a normal fire? What
about a normal power outage? What about a normal sprinkler system discharge?

It doesn't take a lunatic to disable 2 server racks in the same room.

~~~
cjg_
Also from the article it says water damage to equipment which made it sound
like they didn't have inert gas fire suppression systems installed (or that it
couldn't handle the fire).

------
tomswartz07
I wish the article had a bit more technical details about the failover system
used.

What's interesting is, although nowhere near useful enough to organize rapid
aircraft landing, one could purchase a cheap ($10) Software Defined Radio and
use something like Dump1090[1] to view all local planes.

I imagine they still had some sort of capability close to this while their
machines were 'offline'.

[1]
[https://github.com/MalcolmRobb/dump1090](https://github.com/MalcolmRobb/dump1090)

~~~
dhbanes
Not all planes broadcast ads-b.

~~~
tomswartz07
I might be wrong, but I believe most passenger airlines currently have it
onboard.

It's supposedly required to be on board in the very near future.

