US: United Airlines chaos caused by human error and automation
Posted by Lauren Drablier on September 10, 2008 at 12:55 PM
As the autopsy continues into the United Airlines story, it is looking like the error was due to both human error and automation.
The seven-year-old story that caused United Airlines Stock to plummet on Monday was apparently picked up after being posted on the Florida Sun Sentinel's website's "most viewed".
The story, hosted in the papers archive, reportedly received enough Internet traffic to push it into the "Popular Business Stories" section. Automated Google software then picked up the link, and it went straight to Google News. Three minutes and two seconds later it was posted.
The Florida investment firm, Income Securities Advisors, then saw the link on Google News and posted a summary on the Bloomberg financial information service. Due to the popularity of Bloomberg's financial news, the story was then seen by thousands of traders sparking the sell-off of UAL shares.
"It has been widely reported that many readers were unable to determine the original date of publication of this article, and our (automated computer) crawling was similarly unable to recognize that the article was old," Google stated.
Within a matter of minutes the financial mayhem caused amounted to about $1 billion as shares plunged from $12.30 to $3. Approximately 15 million shares were traded during the 13 minutes until trading was halted. The news not only affected UAL but other airline companies as well.
Sources: AP, Follow the Media
The seven-year-old story that caused United Airlines Stock to plummet on Monday was apparently picked up after being posted on the Florida Sun Sentinel's website's "most viewed". The story, hosted in the papers archive, reportedly received enough Internet traffic to push it into the "Popular Business Stories" section. Automated Google software then picked up the link, and it went straight to Google News. Three minutes and two seconds later it was posted.
The Florida investment firm, Income Securities Advisors, then saw the link on Google News and posted a summary on the Bloomberg financial information service. Due to the popularity of Bloomberg's financial news, the story was then seen by thousands of traders sparking the sell-off of UAL shares.
"It has been widely reported that many readers were unable to determine the original date of publication of this article, and our (automated computer) crawling was similarly unable to recognize that the article was old," Google stated.
Within a matter of minutes the financial mayhem caused amounted to about $1 billion as shares plunged from $12.30 to $3. Approximately 15 million shares were traded during the 13 minutes until trading was halted. The news not only affected UAL but other airline companies as well.
Sources: AP, Follow the Media
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![Digg](http://digg.com/submit?phase=2&&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.editorsweblog.org%2Fmultimedia%2F2008%2F09%2Fus_united_airlines_chaos_caused_by_human.php&bodytext=As the autopsy continues into the <b>United Airlines</b> story, it is looking like the error was due to both human error and automation.<br /><br /><form contenteditable="false" mt:asset-id="832" class="mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-image" style="display: inline;"><a href="http://www.editorsweblog.org/united.jpg"><img alt="united.jpg" src="http://www.editorsweblog.org/united-thumb-125x83.jpg" class="mt-image-left" style="margin: 0pt 20px 20px 0pt; float: left;" height="83" width="125" /></a></form>The seven-year-old story that caused United Airlines Stock to plummet on Monday was apparently picked up after being posted on the <i>Florida Sun Sentinel's</i> website's "most viewed". <br /><br />The story, hosted in the papers archive, reportedly received enough Internet traffic to push it into the "Popular Business Stories" section. Automated <b>Google </b>software then picked up the link, and it went straight to Google News. Three minutes and two seconds later it was posted.<br /><br />The Florida investment firm, <b>Income Securities Advisors</b>, then saw the link on Google News and posted a summary on the Bloomberg financial information service. Due to the popularity of <b>Bloomberg</b>'s financial news, the story was then seen by thousands of traders sparking the sell-off of UAL shares.<br /><br />"It has been widely reported that many readers were unable to determine the original date of publication of this article, and our (automated computer) crawling was similarly unable to recognize that the article was old," Google stated. <br /><br />Within a matter of minutes the financial mayhem caused amounted to about $1 billion as shares plunged from $12.30 to $3. Approximately 15 million shares were traded during the 13 minutes until trading was halted. The news not only affected UAL but other airline companies as well. <br /><br />Sources: <a href="http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5h3HIS6lsad3AF39pGpBbbCEoMvfQD933ICL00">AP</a>, <a href="http://www.followthemedia.com/writeon/source10092008.htm">Follow the Media</a> <div><br /><br />See Also:<br /><a href="http://www.editorsweblog.org/multimedia/2008/09/us_united_airlines_stock_plummets_after.php">US: United Airlines stock plummets after old bankruptcy story re-surfaces</a><br /></div>&title=US: <b>United Airlines</b> chaos caused by human error and automation){kind=link}