A number of American Airlines planes have been grounded in the US following an unspecified problem with an iPad app that provides mapping and flight planning information to pilots – understood to be the Jeppesen mobile terminal chart application – that caused the planes to return to their gates to access a Wi-Fi connection in order to fix the issue.
Jeppesen is a division of Boeing Digital Aviation.
“American Airlines said in a statement a few dozen planes were affected,” Allie Coyne reports for iTnews. “It said it was working to remediate the problem.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Note to American Airlines: Make sure your systems are updated and tested prior to takeoff lest you unleash an unholy storm of typically piss-poor mainstream media headlines and reports (based, of course, on random Tweets from ignoramus passengers) that incorrectly and unfairly blame the wrong company because you’re bunch of incompetent fscktards.
Related articles:
Pilot and his wife use their iPads to crash-land airplane after navigation systems fail – February 8, 2015
Apple iPad reduces single biggest source of pilot injuries, saves fuel at American Airlines – May 1, 2013
FAA authorizes use of Jeppesen app on iPad to replace paper aeronautical charts – February 16, 2011
Well the way the Marketwatch headline was worded this morning was, “American Airlines flights delayed buy Apple iPad glitch.” Just a tad incomplete and misleading was my thought.
Well the way Marketwatch misleadingly worded the headline was, “American Airlines flights delayed by Apple iPad glitch.” Later in the article it mentioned a problem with a “software application” but not the Jeppeson app.
Oops. I had a WiFi glitch of my own and though the first post got lost. Technology… 😁
The article indicates that the root cause is not yet known, so it could be the app, it could be the iPad, or if could be interference from something else. It is the mark of a fanboy to eliminate his favorite brand from any problem investigation.
Maybe airport environments are now being overwhelmed with too many untested consumer-grade wi-fi and cellular communications — which could possibly be solved with better hardware. Too soon to draw conclusions.
I didn’t draw conclusions. The headline was, “American Airlines flights delayed by Apple iPad glitch.”
That software is probably very complex and is most likely the culprit rather than the hardware or iOS. It’s the responsibility of the developer to be sure it works properly on each iOS update. That’s not a fanboy call. I think the hardware and iOS have a pretty good track record of enabling predictable software stability.
I’m curious to see Marketwatch’s followup.
Sorry BMW, my comment was intended in response to Sam. I hope Apple is working with American and with Jeppesen to find out what’s wrong. Even if it’s not directly Apple’s issue, Apple can learn and it can demonstrate that it cares about business customers. That’s something that Apple has not done well in the past, which is why some other airlines have chosen MS Surfaces and other portables — without an incident like this, as far as I know.
I saw the headline and I knew the new headline rule was out in full force: Any headline that tries to show Apple in a negative light is misleading. (at best)
It knew this would turn out to be someone else’s screw up
Because Apple is always perfect? Really?
Mike, No Apple is not perfect, but neither is it to fault for every crappy software upgrade, bad app, or company using the iPad in weird or lazy ways.
Apple is not perfect. However it sure is standing way way taller than every other company out there. Period.
How come it’s always “Smartphone battery catches on fire” when it’s an Android product but “Apple iDevice causes disaster” whenever it’s an iOS device? (No need to answer- it’s a rhetorical question.) 😉
I blame Apple!
Wait — I blame Obama!
Wait — it’s GOD’s fault!!
No, Apple’s fault…
seems to have lost my [/sarcasm] tag….
It’s normal. Just like the old days. Whenever the entire Network goes down, the IT doofus yell, “it’s that dude with that Mac and his AppleTalk chatter is bringing down the network” No more Macs on our Network. 😏
Gosh MDN blaming American Airlines for something that the media would have done even if all the pieces were in place.
Talk about calling the kettle black.
Of course citizens of the free world, what do you expect from american media reporting about an american airline using american software on an american device.
Just goes to show you that one good Apple does not save a rotten bushel, and we all know just how rotten that bushel is now.
The issue is the fault of Boeing/Jeppesen. The way the database is loaded into that app is a mess. The data is loaded ahead of time before it is effective. If the data is not ready when the app expects to be able to download it, the app produces an error message that makes it appear as though the database is not current. This all happens without intervention from the airline. The data is served directly from the Jeppesen server to the app.
Should have said, probably Boeing/Jeppesens fault. Could also be one of the several unadvertised bugs in iOS 8.3 or an issue with the networking equipment at the airport. Complex systems and all that.
If it’s an app by Boeing, I ain’t going…
You think Airbus are any better? Their app support is an order of magnitude worse than Boeing.
Netherlads: Bias report. iPad instead of tablet. Why? Apple is an attention-getter. It used to be “sex”, now it is Apple.