Software bug resulted in 100 injured with 28 dead (2000)

https://www-users.cse.umn.edu/~arnold/disasters/patriot.html

by jessejjohnson • 2 years ago

31 4 2 years ago

www-users.cse.umn.edu

frozenport• 2 years ago

This misses the context.

A war between the two countries caused the death

Also the bug was known, and more of a limitation that required the system to be power cycled (and this unit wasn't).

mikeweiss• 2 years ago

In 1991 during Gulf War, a bug in an American Patriot Missile failed to intercept an incoming Iraqi Scud missile which in result hit it's intended target and killed 28 soldiers and injured around 100 other people.

immibis• 2 years ago

Seems unfair to blame it as software killing people. Going to war killed people and software failed to prevent it.

EligibleDecoy• 2 years ago

This is more a case of bad assumptions not being made clear. The software assumed the system would be rebooted every like 48 hours (so when it had been running for over 100 hours it was way past its design envelope) but if I remember, the manual did not specify why the system had to be rebooted so the soldiers left it running because, ya know, it was a war and it would suck to have the system booting when a missile is coming in.

All that is to say, the Iraqi guard killed those soldiers. Failing to intercept a missile doesn’t mean the software killed those people. It just failed to save them which is not the same as, let’s say, the infamous Therac-25 problem that irradiated 6 people very seriously.

Software bug resulted in 100 injured with 28 dead (2000)

Related Stories