Networks and Distributed Systems
Research group of Prof. Peter Bernard Ladkin, Ph.D.
Computer-Related Incidents with Commercial Aircraft
British Airways/Korean Air near miss, Chinese airspace, 28 June 1999
28 June 1999Synopsis British Airways Flight 27 and Korean Air Lines Flight 507 experienced a near miss over Chinese airspace. Both aircraft were equipped with the TCAS collision avoidance system. But one aircraft was transmitting faulty altitude data, confusing the TCAS resolution logic. The aircraft were thus drawn closer to each other through the TCAS Resolution Advisories, the exact opposite of what is intended to happen. The problem was traced to a physical anomaly in the TCAS kit, which led to a redesign. The incident is recounted in Section 3.1 of Ed Williams's paper Airborne Collision Avoidance System, presented at the Ninth Australian Workshop on Safety-Related Programmable Systems, Brisbane, August 2004, published in CRPIT Volume 47: Safety Critical Systems and Software 2004
Various aircraft: airprox due to TCAS RA manoeuvring, Trasadingen, Switzerland, September 2000
High-Intensity Electromagnetic Radiated Fields; TWA 800, and Swissair 111 (1996 and 1998)