Please try the URL privacy information feature enabled by clicking the flashlight icon above. This will reveal two icons after each link the body of the digest. The shield takes you to a breakdown of Terms of Service for the site - however only a small number of sites are covered at the moment. The flashlight take you to an analysis of the various trackers etc. that the linked site delivers. Please let the website maintainer know if you find this useful or not. As a RISKS reader, you will probably not be surprised by what is revealed…
Yes, I heard that report, and watched most of it (I was in the kitchen at the time and it was on the tiny-screen set on top of the fridge, and I was doing other things at the same time, but I caught the gist). The particular plane is a corporate turboprop, and there have been repeated instances of crashes at high speed into the ground. Recordings of pilot-to-tower conversations indicate that the autopilot has had a history of seizing control away from the human pilot, and that turning it off again is sometimes difficult or impossible. (There weren't many details; I am guessing that to disable it the pilot has to hit circuit breakers or otherwise power down the autopilot, and it may be hard to do when he is also wrestling with the controls to try to keep the plane from crashing.) Could it be that, this being a corporate plane, there is normally only a single pilot, not a pair (pilot & copilot), so there are no free hands to fiddle about with such switches or seldom-used controls? (That's just an unsupported speculation on my part...) In any case, it was a for-real broadcast. You might be able to get a transcript from CBS or from one of the video-news-recording/clipping services. (Side note to the list: Does anyone have a comprehensive list of such video-clipping services? I've heard of them several times, and it seems that people often need to get such info, like in this case, after hearing about a televised report or event that they missed. I don't know any specific firm or organization names or locations, nor have I any idea of what such services cost.) Regards, Will Martin
In RISKS 5:50, Nancy Leveson writes: > Supposedly, the [Japanese MU-2's] computerized autopilot will, under > certain conditions, not let the pilot have control back. I think you'll find that most autopilots — indeed, most avionics of any type — in American-registered aircraft will be American-manufactured. At least at the low and middle end (I can't speak for the high-priced spread types) there isn't much penetration by foreign manufacturers. While I've never flown the MU-2, my memory says that those I've seen had either King, Bendix, or Sperry avionics packages, probably with a matching IFCS (Integrated Flight Control System). I recall seeing some MU-2 accident reports a while back that referred to the autopilot as being involved, including one in which the pilot told the FAA controller that he had autopilot problems just before the (fatal) crash. I'm inclined to doubt that "the autopilot would not let the pilot have control back", since the control servo drives the (mechanical) control wire through a slip clutch whose breakaway limit must be no greater than can be overcome by the pilot. It would require a runaway autopilot *and* a siezed clutch to deny the pilot control. The MU-2 has a reputation of requiring an unusually high degree of attention by the pilot, so any autopilot problems could be more serious in a MU-2 than the same problem would be in, say, a Cessna 421. What may be more likely is that the autopilot sets up divergent oscillation which ultimately overstresses the airframe. If for some reason the pilot fails to disconnect the autopilot promptly, the result can be spacial disorientation which in turn can cause the pilot to lose control of the aircraft even if the autopilot-induced load was within limits. What does this mean to RISKS-readers? One problem which is found in many aviation accident reports is that the aircrew (student pilot through 747 captain) has become complacent due to the assistance given by the "black boxes" on the aircraft. When one of those boxes fails, the sudden transition to basic flying and navigation (probably not practiced for a l-o-n-g time) isn't successful and the airplane does things it's not supposed to. Even worse, the boxes can give false or conflicting data and the aircrew doesn't resolve the problem in time to prevent an accident, like a 727 did a few years ago in New York when its stall warning (in effect, underspeed...no flames, please) and Mach warning (overspeed) alarms both activated. The result was a "superstall" and crash with no survivers...straight down from 30,000 feet.
Nearly three years ago a malfunctioning guidance system caused indication
of a launch sequence on a Minuteman 3 missile with three nuclear warheads.
An armored vehicle was then parked on the silo to block any accidental
launch.
AP reported that a Wednesday story in the Casper Star Tribune says the
guidance system malfunctioned on January 10, 1984. Capt. Bill Kalton of
Warren Air Force base says that lights which monitor the status of the
missile followed the pattern of a launch. When the guidance system
failed it showed false indications on the monitoring equipment.
A response team rushed to the missile site, parked an armored vehicle on
top of the silo and left the scene. If the concrete cover of the silo
had opened the vehicle would have fallen on the missile, damaging it and
blocking its path. A maintenance team determined the missile was not in
a launch sequence and that the warheads were not armed.
Scot E. Wilcoxon sewilco@DataPg.MN.ORG {ems,meccts}!datapg!sewilco
Data Progress Minneapolis, MN, USA +1 612-825-2607
AP reports that the Pentagon has created a computer-based system to
encourage communication of SDI technology. Col. Jim Ball, director of
technology applications for the SDI Organization, made the announcement.
Using TAIS, "a civilian researcher working on a field also being explored
for Star Wars can obtain an unclassified summary of the Star Wars work
and a referral to the individual researcher for consultation."
The TAIS computer will not have classified information and will be
available at only the cost of a phone call. U.S. citizens, after
agreeing not to disclose sensitive information, can apply to the Defense
Logistics agency for an access code. No security clearance is needed,
although the Pentagon considers some information as being sensitive
enough to keep track of those who have access.
Scot E. Wilcoxon sewilco@DataPg.MN.ORG {ems,meccts}!datapg!sewilco
Data Progress Minneapolis, MN, USA +1 612-825-2607
A brand new book of interest:
'Computers In Battle' edited by David Bellin and Gary Chapman.
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1987, $14.95.
xiv + 362 pages, including Bibliography, Resources, Index.
ISBN 0-15-121232-5
Table of Contents
Computers in Battle: A Human Overview
Severo Ornstein
A History of Computers and Weapons Systems
Paul N. Edwards
The New Generation of High-Technology Weapons
Gary Chapman
Computer System Reliability and Nuclear War
Alan Borning
Computer and the Strategic Defense Initiative
Eric Roberts and Steve Berlin
The Strategic Computing Program
Jonathan Jacky
Computers in Weapons: The Limits of Confidence
David Lorge Parnas
Artificial Intelligence as Military Technology
Tom Athanasiou
High Technology and the Emerging Dual Economy
Lenny Siegel and John Markoff
The Role of Military Funding in Academic Computer Science
Clark Thomborson
Computers and War: Philosophical Reflections on Ends and Means
John Ladd
Just an educated guess, but the failure was probably due to the index
generation software not recognizing ligatures (e.g., 'fl' and 'ffl'),
which were stored as single, "non-alphabetic" characters.
John A. Pershing Jr., Yorktown Heights
[Ligature software carefully before using it. PGN]
An important element of civil disobedience is that you take your lumps as they are determined by the system whose legi- timacy you are challenging. Thus the blacks who sat in the front of the buses and accepted arrest were practicing civil disobedience, in the hope that the visibility would create the public sentiment for change. In a republic such as ours, CD provides an important avenue of political expression, when the "approved" methods (writing legislators, organizing, bumperstickers) don't cut the mustard. [OK... I think we have saturated on this one for now. TNX... PGN.]
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