09/17/2026
A sailor typed one wrong number into a Navy computer. Then the ship stopped moving. β οΈ
In September 1997, aboard the USS Yorktown, a crew member entered a zero into a database field while calibrating a fuel valve.
That single zero triggered a divide-by-zero error inside the ship's Windows NT-powered control network. π»
The error cascaded through the system. Propulsion control failed completely. π¨
The $1 billion Aegis cruiser went dead in the water off the Virginia coast β for almost three hours. β
No missile strike. No storm. No enemy. Just one number, typed wrong, and a warship the entire US Navy couldn't move.
Should the military ever trust a commercial operating system to run a warship?