Recent Website Downtime and Data Loss

December 22, 2021AAL001 - Torrance Hollins

Late Sunday evening (19 December 2021) we experienced a critical hardware failure which caused a server outage while preparing some of the framework for the next generation of vAAirlines and the new platform that we have been developing. Under normal circumstances we would be able to restore a backup of the website with minimal downtime and data loss. Unfortunately, our hosting company was unable to recover their backups leaving us without months of data. Thankfully we do have a master backup from our old hosting company but that snapshot was taken in the last week of September.

We understand the disappointment that is most likely felt by those who have found a home in our organization in the last few months, and we can not express how sorry we are for this mistake on both our part, as well as the part of our web hosting company. We have been working almost around the clock since this happened to return your accounts, flights, accomplishments, and memories back to the point they were and would like to highlight key changes that we will be making moving forward to ensure that this does not happen again:

  • We have already recovered the website to a snapshot backup from September 2021.
  • We have been working around almost the clock to fill in the blanks from then until now.
  • We have been in constant communication with our web hosting company to find a solution and will be prepared to move to a new host if no solution is found for the current issue, as well as to ensure that this can not happen again.
  • We have invested in alternative and diverse backup solutions to ensure our data remains both accessible and, most importantly, safe.

We understand that there will be many questions moving forward and we welcome all of them as we find solutions and begin building the new pathway forward. For the most up to date information, please join us on discord as it is the fastest way for us to give information out to everyone. We will give an all clear once the website is back to working 100%, but until then we will have very limited usability of it.

This is by no means the “end of the year update” that we wanted to be sending out, and we can not express how sorry we are for the current state of our organization. Each and every one of you who has taken the time to sign up, fly, and begin your journey with us are what make up this organization and have turned it into what it is today. We owe it to you to continue to work as diligently as we can to get things back to as close to normal as we can while minimizing delays and data loss in the process.

Moving forward we would like to outline the following steps to take for all users depending on your situation:

Pilots hired before September 25, 2021

  • All data including PIREPs, FlightAcademy Logs, and awards have been lost.
    • Manual PIREPs can be filed for any flight flown on VATSIM during this timeframe via the normal method (book the flight in JetNet, navigate to the website > Pilot Portal > FAQs > Pilot Portal FAQs and follow the link to file a manual PIREP). If you utilize any other flight tracking application (ProjectFly, Voltana, etc), you can export any AAL flight that you flew with us and email it to us to import it.
    • Email any emailed logs you have from the FlightAcademy regarding passed exams and ranks assigned so we can get your rank reestablished.

Pilots hired after September 25, 2021 but before December 21, 2021

  • Unfortunately, your registration has been lost. We will need you to re-apply for the airline which includes re-taking the entrance exam. If your new rank is lower than your previously assigned one, forward your initial welcome email to us and we will correct your initial rank. You will most likely be getting a new pilot ID so make sure to update that for login credentials as well as with your nickname in Discord.
  • Once your account is reestablished, all of the information under the above section “Pilots hired before September 25, 2021” now applies to you as well.

Pilots hired after December 21, 2021

No action is needed from you. Welcome to vAAirlines and we look forward to flying with you!

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