My hot take is that the pilots at the take off location figured they could bypass the automated systems impaired by the cyberattack's effects. So they did, but such improvisation on a modern passenger airliner isn't without risk, and when they began their airport approach either they had something disabled that interfered with landing or the plane's systems became vulnerable to some new attack/stage of the cyberattack.
Basically, they were able to get the plane off the ground and fly it for a while after the attack, but either their actions or some element of the attack interfered with landing approach and brought the plane down.
For all we know, maybe this is how the aviation element of the attack was *supposed* to work. Plane appears to be normal at takeoff, but the fly-by-wire controls are sabotaged and it only kicks in during landing tasks. If the cyberattackers goal is creating chaos and destruction, making planes seem safe to take off but with a hidden deathtrap around landing is a great idea. Disabling them on the tarmac is a problem, but not nearly as big of a problem if they all crash on landing.
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FootOfDavros (8168)
a year ago
I think that's a fair point re whether a plane could technically take off, be flown and landed without the GPS systems, which would use GPS.
But not sure about what we see - i.e. commercial airlines continuing to be cleared for take off on a "let's give it a bash" basis - long after the GPS and communications have been knocked out seems an unlikely possibility.
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mobocracy (892)
a year ago
There could be some question as to whether flights were being "cleared" in some official way. These could be kind of rogue flights where the flight crew was based at the destination airport, wanted to get home, and they somehow managed to get the plane fueled, perhaps with some cohort of passengers also desperate to get back.
"We've got the buggy controls disabled, we know we can take off/fly under manual controls. There's some risk, but its a mediated one.." Until they go to land, and find out that the controls are messed up.
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