Software Quality Assurance

Appendix 2 Incidents and Horror Stories Involving Software

In 1962, the exploration module Mariner 1 of NASA crashes. It was discovered that a period was placed where a parenthesis should have been in a FORTRAN DO-Loop statement.

In 1979, the problems at the Three Mile Island nuclear plant were caused by a misinterpretation of a user interface.

In 1982, a Russian pipeline explodes because of a defect in the software. This explosion is the largest since the nuclear explosions at the end of World War II.

In 1982, during the Falklands War, the HMS Sheffield was sunk by French Exocet missiles launched by the Argentine army. The radar on the Sheffield was programmed to classify the Exocet as “friend” since these missiles were also used by the British army.

In 1983, a false alarm in a nuclear attack detection system came close to causing a nuclear war.

Between 1985 and 1987, the Therac-25 killed six people with an overdose of radiation.

In 1988, a civilian Airbus aircraft full of passengers was shot down due to the pattern recognition software that had not clearly identified the aircraft.

In 1990, the loss of long distance access at AT&T plunged the United States into an unparalleled telephone crisis.

In 1992, London ambulances changed their call-tracking software and lost control of the situation when the number of calls increased.

The maiden flight of the Ariane 5, which took place June 4, 1996 resulted in failure. About 40 seconds after the start of the flight sequence, the rocket ...