Malware's role in fatal 2008 air crash  An infection didn't
cause the crash but might have kept a maintence system from
preventing it  A Spanair flight that crashed two years ago
killed 154 people and was Spain's worst air disaster in 25
years. Recent reports have suggested that an infected computer
warning system was the reason pilots were not alerted that the
plane’s wing slats were not properly positioned for takeoff.
That does not appear to be true — Spanair JK 5022 was not
brought down by a Trojan.  What might have happened is that an
airline maintenance department computer used to track problems
reported on aircraft was running slow, possibly because of a
malware infection, and mechanics had not entered the latest
incident report for that aircraft before the fatal takeoff
attempt.  The infection did not cause the crash, but it might be
the reason that the aircraft was not flagged for attention,
which in turn could have led to the crash. That indirect
contribution to a disaster illustrates the importance