The Register:
Boeing 787s must be turned off and on every 51 days to prevent 'misleading data' being shown to pilots
US air safety bods call it 'potentially catastrophic' if reboot directive not implemented
[...] The US Federal Aviation Administration has ordered Boeing 787 operators to switch their aircraft off and on every 51 days to prevent what it called "several potentially catastrophic failure scenarios" – including the crashing of onboard network switches.
The airworthiness directive[*], due to be enforced from later this month, orders airlines to power-cycle their B787s before the aircraft reaches the specified days of continuous power-on operation.
The power cycling is needed to prevent stale data from populating the aircraft's systems, a problem that has occurred on different 787 systems in the past.
[*] The link in the article from The Register was copied correctly, and points to https://ad.easa.europa.eu/ad/US-2020-06-14. The actual FAA Airworthiness Directive appears to be: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2020/03/23/2020-06092/airworthiness-directives-the-boeing-company-airplanes.
At least I can take comfort that software in aircraft is probably more reliable than software in automobiles.
Previously:
(2019-07-25) Airbus A350 Software Bug Forces Airlines to Turn Planes Off and On Every 149 Hours
(2015-05-02) 787 Software Bug Can Shut Down Planes' Generators.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by crahman on Friday April 03 2020, @03:44AM (6 children)
The fact that this particular problem continues to be found in Boeing's software indicates that a larger problem exists within the organization, which should disqualify them from the production of critical systems.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 03 2020, @05:16AM (2 children)
Yeah, but the US has no alternate large-civilian-airliner producer anymore, so you take what you can get.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by mhajicek on Friday April 03 2020, @06:06AM (1 child)
Good reason to not approve monopoly creating mergers.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 3, Insightful) by deadstick on Friday April 03 2020, @09:40AM
Your typical aerospace merger is a case of eating something that's died of disease. If you catch it, it's your own damn fault.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 03 2020, @05:18AM
OH But hey! Look there's a kid trying to eat a real Kinder egg! Look over there!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 03 2020, @10:52AM
Boeing are offering to buyout all their current staff as a result of this recession.
The company isn't going to be making aircraft for much longer.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 03 2020, @12:44PM
What problem? [boeing.com]