Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!tektronix!zeus!amadeus!rob
From: rob@amadeus.TEK.COM (Dan Tilque)
Newsgroups: comp.software-eng
Subject: Software caused deaths
Message-ID: <3281@zeus.TEK.COM>
Date: 19 Mar 88 07:55:41 GMT
References: <3540@medusa.cs.purdue.edu>
Sender: news@zeus.TEK.COM
Reply-To: dant@mrloog.LA.TEK.COM (Dan Tilque)
Distribution: na
Organization: Tektronix, Inc., Beaverton,  OR.
Lines: 15

Gene Spafford writes:
>  Software caused deaths
>and major property losses have occurred, and you can be sure someone is
>going to pay for those!
>
In the March 12th Science News, there is an article about FDA regulation
of software contained in medical instruments.  In it they mention where
two deaths and a severe burn were caused by a bug in a linear accelerator
(used in radiation therapy for cancer).  These are the first cases I have
ever heard about where a death was directly attributed to a software bug.
Are these the only cases, or have there been others?  


---
Dan Tilque  --  dant@mrloog.LA.TEK.COM