Location via proxy:   [ UP ]  
[Report a bug]   [Manage cookies]                
skip to main content
10.1145/3426428.3426926acmconferencesArticle/Chapter ViewAbstractPublication PagessplashConference Proceedingsconference-collections
research-article
Open access

Discussion of aviation software oversight improvement

Published: 17 November 2020 Publication History

Abstract

The paper describes and critiques the certification of U.S. aviation software. Flight-critical software certification and regulation need external academic review and intervention. Industry is driven to generate profits over prioritizing public safety concerns and has failed to develop adequately proven methods of certifying that flight-critical software is safe to deploy.
The opinions expressed in this paper are the views of the author and do not reflect the official policy or position of any agency of the U.S. government.

Supplementary Material

Auxiliary Presentation Video (onward20essays-id6-p-video.mp4)
The 15 minute video introduces the paper and adds some additional information. The recording touches on the human side of software failures and illustrates some of the damage to victims and their surviving family. The intent of the video is to reach out to the humanities side of computer science as an Art. Understanding our users is a key component to our practice and perhaps how the Art of Computer Science differs from engineering disciplines.
MP4 File (3426428.3426926.mp4)
Presentation Videos

References

[1]
Miron Abramovici, Ytzhak H. Levendel, and Premachandran R. Menon. 1983. A Logical Simulation Machine. IEEE Transactions on Computer-Aided Design of Integrated Circuits and Systems CAD-2, 2 (April 1983 ), 82-94.
[2]
Air Accidents Investigation Branch, Department for Transport 2005. AAIB Bulletin S1/2005 Special. Air Accidents Investigation Branch, Department for Transport, Farnborough House, Berkshire Copse Road Aldershot, Hants GU11 2HH, UK. AAIB Bulletin No: S1 /2005 Ref: EW/C2005/02/03 Category: 1.1.
[3]
Air Accidents Investigation Branch, Department for Transport 2006. AAIB Bulletin S3/2006 Special. Air Accidents Investigation Branch, Department for Transport, Farnborough House, Berkshire Copse Road Aldershot, Hants GU11 2HH, UK. AAIB Bulletin No: S3 /2006 G-EUOB Ref: EW/C2005/10/05 Category: 1.1.
[4]
Cary Aspinwall, Ariana Giorgi, and Dom DiFurio. 2019. Several Boeing 737 Max 8 pilots in U.S. complained about suspected safety flaw. The Dallas Morning News https://www.dallasnews.com/business/airlines/2019/03/12/severalboeing-737-max-8-pilots-in-u-s-complained-about-suspected-safetyflaw/.
[5]
Press Association. 2019. Reform is still needed nearly three years after Rescue 116 crash, warns pilots' group. https://www.thejournal.ie/rescue-116-irish-coast-guard-4949932-Dec2019 /.
[6]
Australian Government Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) 2007. In-flight upset event 240 km north-west of Perth, WA Boeing Company 777-200, 9M-MRG 1 August 2005 (final ed.). Australian Government Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB), PO Box 967, Civic Square ACT 2608. Aviation Occurrence Report 200503722, Mar2007/DOTARS 50165.
[7]
Daniel Brown. 2018. These are the 20 defense companies donating the most money to American politicians. Business Insider https://www.businessinsider.com/the-top-20-defense-companiesdonating-the-most-cash-to-us-politicians-2017-11?op=1.
[8]
James Bruno. 2020. The Republicans' Disdain for Science Has Endangered Us All. The Washington Monthly.
[9]
Margaret Burnett, John Atwood, Rebecca Walpole Djang, James Reichwein, Herkimer Gottfried, and Sherry Yang. 2001. Forms/3: A firstorder visual language to explore the boundaries of the spreadsheet paradigm. Journal of Functional Programming 11, 2 ( 2001 ), 155-206.
[10]
Margaret M. Burnett. 1993. Types and Type Inference in a Visual Programming Language. In Proceedings 1993 IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages. IEEE, Bergen, Norway, 238-243.
[11]
Margaret M. Burnett and Allen L. Ambler. 1994. Interactive Visual Data Abstraction in a Declarative Visual Programming Language. Journal of Visual Languanges and Computing 5, 1 ( 1994 ), 29-60.
[12]
Margaret M. Burnett, Marla J. Baker, Carisa Bohus, Paul Carlson, Sherry Yang, and Pieter van Zee. 1995. Scaling Up Visual Programming Languages. Computer 28 (March 1995 ), 45-54. h ps://doi.org/10.1109/2.366157
[13]
Erwin Chemerinsky. 2001. Against Sovereign Immunity. The Stanford Law Review 35, 1201 (May 2001 ), 1201-1224.
[14]
U.S. Supreme Court. 1984. United States v. Varig Airlines, 467 U.S. 797 ( 1984 ). Number 82-1349. Certiorari to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, 1 1st St NE, Washington, DC 20543. Argued January 18, 1984, Decided June 19, 1984.
[15]
Javier de Luis PhD. 2020. Re: Graziella De Luis, Ethiopian 737 Max Accident. private communications-email. Lecturer, Dept. of Aeronautics and Astronautics, MIT. Dr. de Luis' sister, Graziella de Luis, was on board the Ethiopian Flight 302 Boeing Max 737 when the aircraft crashed on March 10, 2019. As a U.S. citizen, she was living in Rome and working for the U.N.
[16]
Steve Denning. 2019. How Politics Delayed A Boeing Fix And Endangered Public Safety. Forbes https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevedenning/2019/03/13/howpolitics-hindered-a-boeing-fix-and-endangered-publicsafety/#5d0bb653620c.
[17]
Ian Duncan. 2019. FAA leadership disputes watchdog's finding that 737 Max inspectors were underqualified, denies misleading Congress. The Washington Post ( September 2019 ).
[18]
Paul Farrell. 2017. Preliminary Report Accident, Sikorsky S-92A, EI-ICR, Black Rock, Co. Mayo, Ireland, 14 March 2017. Preliminary Accident Report AAIU Report No: 2017-006, State File No: IRL00917016. Air Accident Investigation Unit, Department of Transport Tourism and Sport, 2nd Floor, Leeson Lane, Dublin 2, Ireland.
[19]
Lisa Friedman and Brad Plumer. 2020. Trump's Response to Virus Reflects a Long Disregard for Science. New York Times, A version of this article appears in print on April 29, 2020, Section A, Page 1 of the New York edition with the headline: Science Speaks (But President Rarely Listens).
[20]
John Fritze. 2019. 737 Max maker Boeing spent more than $753,000 on candidates, political organizations last month: FEC report. USA TODAY.
[21]
L. Geppert. 2004. Lost Radio Contact Leaves Pilots on Their Own. IEEE Spectrum 41, 11 ( 2004 ), 16-17.
[22]
Harry A. Hammitt (Ed.). 2019. Washington Focus. Access Reports, Vol. 45. June 26, 2019 The EPA published revisions to its FOIA regulations June 26 without going through the notice and comment period required under the Administrative Procedure Act. The new provisions allow political appointees to make decisions on FOIA releases, including whether records are covered by an exemption, are non-responsive to the request, or do not exist...
[23]
Elan Head. 2017. Rescue 116 helicopter struck island that wasn't in terrain warning database. https://www.verticalmag.com/news/rescue116-helicopter-struck-island-wasnt-terrain-warning-database.
[24]
Mark Huber. 2017. Irish S-92 Accident Report Paints Picture of Confusion. AINOnline https://www.ainonline.com/aviationnews/business-aviation/2017-05-16/irish-s-92-accident-reportpaints-picture-confusion.
[25]
FAA Leadership & Learning Institute. 2018. (01249) Influence, Inquiry & Implications: Leaders Path to the Future. Embassy Suites by Hilton Tampa USF Near Busch Gardens, 3705 Spectrum Blvd, Tampa, FL 33612.
[26]
Daniel Jackson. 2009. A Direct Path to Dependable Software. h ps://doi.org/10.1145/1498765.1498787. Commun. ACM 52, 4 (April 2009 ), 78-88. h ps://doi.org/10.1145/1498765.1498787
[27]
Daniel Jackson, Martyn Thomas, and Lynette I. Millett (Eds.). 2007. Software for Dependable Systems: Sufficient Evidence? National Academies Press online, The National Academies Press 500 Fifth Street, N.W. Washington, DC 20001. ISBN: 0-309-66738-0, Committee on Certifiably Dependable Software Systems Computer Science and Telecommunications Board, Division on Engineering and Physical Sciences.
[28]
Thomas Kaplan. 2019. After Boeing Crashes, Sharp Questions About Industry Regulating Itself. New York Times https://nyti.ms/2CGfRxR.
[29]
Peter Bernard Ladkin. 1998. Abstracts of References and Incidents. http://www.rvs.unibielefeld.de/publications/Incidents/DOCS/FBW.html. University of Bielefeld-Faculty of technology.
[30]
Prof. Peter Bernard Ladkin. 1994. Report on the Accident to Airbus A320-211 Aircraft in Warsaw on 14 September 1993. Technical Report. Universität Bielefeld, AG Rechnernetze und Verteilte Systeme, Technische Fakultät, Universität Bielefeld, Universitätsstraße 25, D-33615 Bielefeld, Germany. Main Commission Aircraft Accident Investigation Warsaw.
[31]
Michael Laris, Lori Aratani, Josh Dawsey, and Toluse Olorunnipa. 2019. FAA doubles down on decision not to ground the Boeing 737 Max, as counterparts around the world have done. The Washington Post-https://wapo.st/3iFtAqI.
[32]
Alec MacGillis. 2019. The Case Against Boeing. The New Yorker and ProPublica (18 November 2019 ), 29. Published in the print edition of the November 18, 2019.
[33]
David G. McCullough. 2015. The Wright brothers (first ed.). Number ISBN 9781476728742. Simon and Schuster, New York, NY.
[34]
S.A. McLeod. 2007. The Milgram experiment. Retrieved from www.simplypsychology.org/milgram.html.
[35]
Ian Duncan Michael Laris and Lori Aratani. 2019. FAA's lax oversight played part in Boeing 737 Max crashes, but agency is pushing to become more industry-friendly. The Washington Post ( October 2019 ). Oct. 28, 2019.
[36]
Stephen Mihm. 2019. The FAA has always been cozy with the aviation industry. That's why we need to empower the NTSB. Los Angeles Times https://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-faa-ntsb-boeing737-crash-20190322-story.html.
[37]
Stanley Milgram. 1963. Behavioral Study of Obedience. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology 67, 4 (Nov 1963 ), 371-378.
[38]
Amit Narang. 2019. Corporate self-regulation is failing. The Hill https://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/the-administration/436328-corporate-self-regulation-is-failing.
[39]
National Transportation Safety Board 2000. Aircraft Accident Report, Controlled Flight into Terrain, Korean Air Flight 801, Boeing 747-300, HL7468, Nimitz Hill, Guam, August 6, 1997. National Transportation Safety Board, Public Inquiries Section, RE-51, 490 L 'Enfant Plaza, East, S.W., Washington, D.C. 20594. NTSB/AAR-00/01 PB00-910401 Notation 6952B.
[40]
Laura Parker. 1987. Cheating Alleged on Air-Traffic Exam. The Washington Post-https://wapo.st/3lo372M.
[41]
Ed Pilkington. 2020. Pandemic brings Trump's war on science to the boil-but who will win? The Guardian-https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/may/03/sciencedonald-trump-coronavirus.
[42]
Radio Technical Commission for Aeronautics (RTCA) 1981. Software Considerations in Airborne Systems and Equipment Certification (rtca do-178 ed.). Radio Technical Commission for Aeronautics (RTCA), 1717 H Street, NW, Suite 655, Washington, DC 20006 USA. Prepared by: SC-145, www.rtca.org.
[43]
Radio Technical Commission for Aeronautics (RTCA) 1992. DO-178B: Software Considerations in Airborne Systems and Equipment Certification (rtca do-178b ed.). Radio Technical Commission for Aeronautics (RTCA), 1828 L Street, NW, Suite 805, Washington, D.C. 20036. Prepared by: RTCA SC-167 / EUROCAE WG-12, www.rtca.org.
[44]
Radio Technical Commission for Aeronautics (RTCA) 2011. RTCA/DO-178 Software Considerations in Airborne Systems and Equipment Certification, RTCA Inc. (rtca do-178c ed.). Radio Technical Commission for Aeronautics (RTCA), 1150 18 Street, NW, Suite 910 Washington, DC 20036-3816 USA. Prepared by: SC-205, www.rtca.org.
[45]
Special Investigations ( 11-3 ) Ronald C. Engler, Director. 2012. Memorandum ACTION : OIG Investigation, # I1OA000073SINV, Re: FAA Transport, Airplane Directorate, Seattle, W A. FOIA request. Redacted for public disclosure.
[46]
RTCA, Incorporated 1998. Standards for Processing Aeronautical Data. RTCA, Incorporated, 1140 Connecticut Avenue, N.W., Suite 10, Washington, DC 20036-4001 USA.
[47]
Fredreka Schouten, Ted Barrett, and Lauren Fox. 2019. Boeing a major lobbying player on Capitol Hill. CNN https://www.cnn.com/ 2019 /03/12/politics/boeing-capitol-hilllobbying/index.html.
[48]
Society of Automotive Engineers, Inc. (SAE) 1996. ARP4754 Certification Considerations for Highly-Integrated or Complex Aircraft Systems. Society of Automotive Engineers, Inc. (SAE), 400 Commonwealth Drive, Warrendale, PA 15096-0001.
[49]
Society of Automotive Engineers, Inc. (SAE) 1996. SAE ARP4761 Guidelines and Methods for Conducting the Safety Assessment Process on Civil Airborne Systems and Equipment. Society of Automotive Engineers, Inc. (SAE), 400 Commonwealth Drive, Warrendale, PA 15096-0001.
[50]
Steven Davidoff Solomon. 2010. The Governments Elite and Regulatory Capture. The New York Times https://dealbook.nytimes.com/ 2010 /06/11/the-governments-eliteand-regulatory-capture/?searchResultPosition=1.
[51]
Emma Stodder. 2019. Corrupted Oversight: The FAA, Boeing, and the 737 Max. Pogo https://www.pogo.org/analysis/2019/10/ corruptedoversight-the-faa-boeing-and-the-737-max/.
[52]
Gwyn Topham. 2019. Lion Air pilots were looking at handbook when plane crashed. The Guardian-https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/mar/20/lion-air-pilotswere-looking-at-handbook-when-plane-crashed.
[53]
U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Aviation Administration 2018. ORDER 8110.49A Software Approval Guidelines ( 8110.49a ed.). U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Aviation Administration. h ps://rgl.faa.gov/.
[54]
Eva Wall. 2020. Pilots' organisation expresses concern that tragic Coast Guard helicopter crash could happen again. https://extra.ie/ 2020 /01/05/news/irish-news/ pilots-organisationcoast-guard-helicopter-crash.
[55]
Andrew Weir. 1999. The Tombstone Imperative The Truth About Air Safety. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-684-81993-7.

Cited By

View all
  • (2023)On Retrofitting Provenance for Transparent and Fair Software - Drivers and Challenges2023 IEEE/ACM International Workshop on Equitable Data & Technology (FairWare)10.1109/FairWare59297.2023.00007(14-21)Online publication date: May-2023
  • (2022)Model Checking Autonomous Components within Electric Power Systems Specified by Interpreted Petri NetsSensors10.3390/s2218693622:18(6936)Online publication date: 14-Sep-2022

Recommendations

Comments

Information & Contributors

Information

Published In

cover image ACM Conferences
Onward! 2020: Proceedings of the 2020 ACM SIGPLAN International Symposium on New Ideas, New Paradigms, and Reflections on Programming and Software
November 2020
208 pages
ISBN:9781450381789
DOI:10.1145/3426428
Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

Sponsors

Publisher

Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 17 November 2020

Permissions

Request permissions for this article.

Check for updates

Author Tags

  1. aviation software
  2. safety-critical software
  3. software requirements

Qualifiers

  • Research-article

Conference

SPLASH '20
Sponsor:

Acceptance Rates

Overall Acceptance Rate 40 of 105 submissions, 38%

Upcoming Conference

Contributors

Other Metrics

Bibliometrics & Citations

Bibliometrics

Article Metrics

  • Downloads (Last 12 months)623
  • Downloads (Last 6 weeks)86
Reflects downloads up to 12 Feb 2025

Other Metrics

Citations

Cited By

View all
  • (2023)On Retrofitting Provenance for Transparent and Fair Software - Drivers and Challenges2023 IEEE/ACM International Workshop on Equitable Data & Technology (FairWare)10.1109/FairWare59297.2023.00007(14-21)Online publication date: May-2023
  • (2022)Model Checking Autonomous Components within Electric Power Systems Specified by Interpreted Petri NetsSensors10.3390/s2218693622:18(6936)Online publication date: 14-Sep-2022

View Options

View options

PDF

View or Download as a PDF file.

PDF

eReader

View online with eReader.

eReader

Login options

Figures

Tables

Media

Share

Share

Share this Publication link

Share on social media