Bad software kills 346 people

That’s a fair headline for the story that has ultimately emerged about the Boeing 737-MAX crashes.

The Verge has a good overview:

But Boeing’s software shortcut had a serious problem. Under certain circumstances, it activated erroneously, sending the airplane into an infinite loop of nose-dives. Unless the pilots can, in under four seconds, correctly diagnose the error, throw a specific emergency switch, and start recovery maneuvers, they will lose control of the airplane and crash — which is exactly what happened in the case of Lion Air Flight 610 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302.

THE ANCIENT COMPUTERS IN THE BOEING 737 MAX ARE HOLDING UP A FIX

I once linked to a story about how no one really cares about software security because no one ever gets seriously hurt. This is a hell of a counterpoint, though admittedly a narrow one.