‘Orly airport malfunction was caused by software on Windows 3.1 PC’

Orly airport near Paris suffered a malfunction last weekend, which meant that planes had to be grounded. According to the French magazine Le Canard Enchaîné, this was due to a flaw in the so-called Decor software, which would run on Windows 3.1.

This is the opinion of the French newspaper Le Monde on the basis of a publication in the French satirical magazine. The magazine also reportedly writes serious articles from time to time, including that about the recent disruption at Orly airport. According to the French, last Saturday’s outage was related to a software system called Decor, which runs on the 23-year-old Windows 3.1.

An insider explained in a conversation with Le Canard Enchaîné that the software tools used at the airport are all between ten and twenty years old. This causes problems in the area of ​​maintenance, among other things: in the case of Decor, there is a major shortage of people who have sufficient knowledge of the system. The old hardware also causes problems. Because it is no longer readily available, repairers sometimes have to search for old parts on Ebay.

The Decor software is used to communicate information about the weather. Air traffic controllers pass the information on to pilots during takeoff and landing, but during the morning of November 7, the system was found to be inoperative. Because there was fog at the same time, aircraft were grounded as a precaution. After the incident, the French government decided to modernize the software, although updates are not expected before 2017.

Although renowned French media such as Le Monde have brought the story of the satirical magazine as news, there is no confirmation that it concerns hardware with Windows 3.1. The responsible French ministry has told various media that it will issue a statement on Monday. It is unknown if it is the Windows 3.1 consumer version or Windows NT 3.1. It’s not the first time a computer failure has grounded aircraft. Last summer, a power outage prevented United Airlines flights.