Failure To Update

I recently read Very Spatial blog entry about how the recent Comair crash was likely due in part to out-of-date maps. The out-of-date-map tragedy quickly reminded me of the accidental bombing of the Chinese embassy in the Balkins in the early 1990's. There is very interesting Congressional Testimony of how this accident happened. In my opinion the Chinese embassy bombing is a case study in why maps must be maintained.

The report goes on to say that some maps had the correct location of the Chinese Embassy, and others did not. Some maps had the correct location of the intended target, while others did not. The problem was that the decision makers, in the fog of war, used the set of outdated maps with the wrong location of the target and didn't cross-check it with another map showing the location of embassies. This failure resulted in tragic consequences.

Unfortunately, this is not much different than Comair. The pilots used the maps they though to be accurate, but wasn't. The controller tower wasn't able to cross check the pilot's actions. This all lead to deadly consequences.

These examples should be brought up anytime a question of the need for map maintenance comes up. Sure - the failure to maintain the parcel or address centerline database won't result in an airline crash or an bombing of embassy. Yet the local effects of such a mistake could still be disastrous.

Maps must be maintained and constantly updated for them to remain effective