Indian developers mistake led to serious problems for TUI aircraft
Back in 2020, a TUI flight out of Birmingham took off with an incorrect thrust setting.
Why?
Because the system used to calculate weight classified 38 adult women as children.
The average weight for a child (35kg) was applied instead of the correct figure for adult women (69kg), leading to a weight miscalculation of over 1,200kg.
The root cause?
The airline’s software had been updated by an outsourced team in India — where “Miss” is commonly used to refer to children, and “Ms” to adult women.
Now, let’s be clear: this isn’t a dig at Indian developers.
It’s a reminder of something deeper — something every tech leader should take seriously:
- Context matters
- Culture matters
- Language nuances matter
Especially when you're building mission-critical systems like aviation software.
At Codecave, we treat context as part of the spec:
✅ We ask the extra questions.
✅ We challenge assumptions.
✅ We think beyond the code to how it actually functions in your world.
Because great engineering isn't just about clean syntax — it's about human understanding.
If you're looking for a dev team that won’t miss the real meaning of your project — let’s talk.
