BA systems down globally

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anonymous-user

Original Poster:

53 months

Saturday 27th May 2017
quotequote all
A bit chaotic at airports

Reporter on radio at LHR saying self. Check in machines are all down and she saw one with the windows XP logo showing on the screen - her likely inference being 'ransomware'

Perik Omo

1,883 posts

147 months

Saturday 27th May 2017
quotequote all
The main datacentre is out so no systems including engineering are working. Bl**dy cheapskates not willing to spend money on resilience/failover, I remember in the 80's trying to sell always-on non-stop systems to BA but they didn't want to know saying that their IBM mainframes were totally reliable and not likely to fail. This seems to be another level though if the whole main datacentre is out but you have to wonder why there is no hot-standby site in case of such a failure for such a large and complex organisation, the CTO should be fired if no disaster recovery is practised at least once a year or is even available!

smack

9,727 posts

190 months

Saturday 27th May 2017
quotequote all
BA have outsourced their IT, and you reap what you sow.

I'm sad to hear this, along with the screw up with rolling out the FLY system, and I have been a supplier, I have many friends that work for BA, and one of their regular customers. I can only hope they realise they got it wrong, and make an amends to fix it and do it right, not as cheap as possible.

yajeed

4,888 posts

253 months

Saturday 27th May 2017
quotequote all
Typical. I'm flying long haul with them on Monday.
Let's hope it's back up and running and the backlog is cleared by then...

Countdown

39,686 posts

195 months

Saturday 27th May 2017
quotequote all
Not a cyber attack then?

anonymous-user

Original Poster:

53 months

Saturday 27th May 2017
quotequote all
Some reports appearing that it is a cyberattack.

Even though BA's iT is notoriously flakey, it's hard to imagine how an IT failure could bring down its systems globally. Cyber attack seems more likely to me (as a non techie)

FourWheelDrift

88,375 posts

283 months

Saturday 27th May 2017
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Cold

15,207 posts

89 months

Saturday 27th May 2017
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All flights cancelled until at least 6pm today. They are urging people not to travel to the airport until further notice.

mitzy

13,857 posts

196 months

Saturday 27th May 2017
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Good job I'm flying emirates then

MitchT

15,788 posts

208 months

Saturday 27th May 2017
quotequote all
JPJPJP said:
... windows XP ...
XP was a great OS in its day - far better than anything that's existed since in my experience as a graphic designer who worked in a company that, unusually, didn't use Macs. BUT, it's now obsolete and Microsoft stopped supporting it ages ago - I was forced onto the relatively stty Win 7 at my old job when XP stopped being supported. Any organisation where IT is so critical, such as an airline or the health service, should always be bang up-to-date.

saaby93

32,038 posts

177 months

Saturday 27th May 2017
quotequote all
MitchT said:
XP was a great OS in its day - far better than anything that's existed since in my experience as a graphic designer who worked in a company that, unusually, didn't use Macs. BUT, it's now obsolete and Microsoft stopped supporting it ages ago - I was forced onto the relatively stty Win 7 at my old job when XP stopped being supported. Any organisation where IT is so critical, such as an airline or the health service, should always be bang up-to-date.
Why not use what's best for the job?
Whats the alternative to Msoft?

Seventy

5,500 posts

137 months

Saturday 27th May 2017
quotequote all
I'm due to fly to Joburg at 7 tonight.
What would you do? I don't live 10 mins from the airport and there is zero information about my flight on the BA website - in fact there is zero information about anything. They say all flights cancelled until six but they may well just be putting out a time to placate people before changing it later.
Rock and hard place!

anonymous-user

Original Poster:

53 months

Saturday 27th May 2017
quotequote all
Seventy said:
I'm due to fly to Joburg at 7 tonight.
What would you do? I don't live 10 mins from the airport and there is zero information about my flight on the BA website - in fact there is zero information about anything. They say all flights cancelled until six but they may well just be putting out a time to placate people before changing it later.
Rock and hard place!
Telephone and be prepared to wait for an answer.

Personally I'd be surprised if your flight went tonight and if it does it will be heavily delayed. BA has planes coming into Heathrow but can't get them out. So it is collecting planes there. Once things return to normal there will be a backlog of departures but the departure schedule (every 3 mins or so) has very little slack in it to allow the backlog to be learned quickly.

MitchT

15,788 posts

208 months

Saturday 27th May 2017
quotequote all
saaby93 said:
Why not use what's best for the job?
Whats the alternative to Msoft?
From the perspective of BA, the NHS, etc. the "best for the job" is something that does the job and is supported by the manufacturer. In my experience Windows fell of a cliff after XP, but these organizations need something that's still supported and, therefore, relatively reliable and secure, so they really should be on an up-to-date version of Windows, even if it's not quite as good as an older, unsupported, version.

smack

9,727 posts

190 months

Saturday 27th May 2017
quotequote all
Seventy said:
I'm due to fly to Joburg at 7 tonight.
What would you do? I don't live 10 mins from the airport and there is zero information about my flight on the BA website - in fact there is zero information about anything. They say all flights cancelled until six but they may well just be putting out a time to placate people before changing it later.
Rock and hard place!
When the st hits the fan, BA will do everything to get their Long Haul planes out, and sacrifice short haul - when snow/fog/etc that is what happens. The costs to cancel a 380 return service is massive, so I will expect it will go, probably very late, else there could be customers stuck in places like JNB for days which will have to be put up in hotels at the Airlines cost.

But probably the best place to look is Flyertalk, where there are posters in the thick of it at LHR, and probably well to getting hammered on BA's free lounge booze.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/british-airways-exe...

bitchstewie

50,767 posts

209 months

Saturday 27th May 2017
quotequote all
saaby93 said:
Why not use what's best for the job?
Whats the alternative to Msoft?
It's not necessarily about Microsoft not being the "best for the job" as it very well may be.

It's about keeping up to date and whilst a copy of Windows may only be a hundred quid or so, that's little benefit if the airport baggage machine it controls costs £200k and doesn't work with anything else.

texaxile

3,289 posts

149 months

Saturday 27th May 2017
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Anyone missing their flight or getting delayed has my sympathy. We found out the hard way how rubbish BA are at Customer Service when we were stranded in Manila during the ash cloud years ago.

BA were absolutely appalling , the UK office never answered the phone and the HK office equally clueless, so a 2 week trip turned into a 6 week one (getting out there was bloody touch and go as well due to strike action by BA cabin crew - we got lucky). They also managed to seat our 2 year old in her own seat between 2 other passengers in economy. I was all for it but the Mrs wanted her to be sat with us.

Bottom line: BA Customer service fking stinks in a time of crisis.

Yipper

5,964 posts

89 months

Saturday 27th May 2017
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BA has been hacked. Shares will be down sharply on Tues.

Cold

15,207 posts

89 months

Saturday 27th May 2017
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Yipper said:
BA has been hacked. Shares will be down sharply on Tues.
Has it? Reputable source required for that claim please.