Analysis of Global Failure in Centralized Information System Used in Aviation

An important factor that ensures the safety of air transport is the competent planning of air traffic flows. A centralized air traffic planning system distributes available load between flight information regions and air traffic control sectors to prevent overloads, delays, and violations of air traffic safety. Each airspace user designs and submits the required airplane trajectory in the specific form of a flight plan to a centralized air traffic flow management system. Due to the multiple advantages of centralized air traffic management, there are some disadvantages. Error and faults in the system could affect the whole air transportation. A global computer crash occurred on July 19, 2024 (CrowdStrike incident) in civil aviation led to a disruption in information systems, which affected the work of airport services around the world and led to delays in departing flights. In the paper, we analyzed the centralized system loop used in civil aviation for control of different processes and its potential to force faults and speed of system recovery. Also, we provide a detailed study of the CrowdStrike incident to determine how exactly this failure affected the work of the aviation industry. Methods of statistical analysis have been used to analyze delays in the air transportation system caused by this incident.