Adobe Flash paralyzes train traffic in a Chinese city
No train traffic without Adobe Flash. Amazing but true. (Photo: Denisgo / Shutterstock)
No time right now?
A rail operator in China had probably not noticed that Adobe had pulled the plug on its Flash tool. Because parts of the operating software were based on it, all trains stopped.
The time had come on January 12, 2021. The very last now-but-really grace period for Adobe Flash had expired. The manufacturer had thus stipulated that existing installations were no longer allowed to execute any content.
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Planning via Flash app paralyzed
In Dalian, north China, this step had unexpected consequences. The railway company there had programmed parts of its operating software in Flash. These parts could no longer be executed after the Adobe tool ended. The consequences were serious. Rail traffic in Dalian came to a standstill for around 20 hours. This is reported by the Hong Kong online news outlet Apple Daily.
Automatic control systems did not fail. Rather, the employees of the railway operator Shenyang were no longer able to view train operation plans and to create train sequence and shunting plans. This meant that reliable operational planning could no longer be guaranteed.
According to reports, those responsible have not tackled the problem at the root, but rather installed a hacked older version of the Flash player that does not know the hard-coded exit date of January 12th.
Adobe Flash: End with a long term
If it had been up to ex-Apple boss Steve Jobs, Flash would have been gone for ten years. Jobs had already explained in 2010 why Apple does not support the format on its devices.
Adobe then asked developers in 2015 to switch to HTML5. In 2017, the manufacturer announced the final end of support for December 31, 2020. The fact that there are still users who rely on Flash for critical applications should come as a surprise. It is not known whether the railway in Dalian will be administered permanently with a pirate flash.
