fa-tal [feyt-l]–adjective causing or capable of causing death; mortal; deadly: a fatal accident; a fatal dose of poison. In technological terms this word means as disastrous as it sounds. Though, the level of impact depends on the mass of the module going down or throwing such an error. Fatal errors are, indeed, caused due to known or un-known human errors. A misplaced comma(',') to a broken connection anything can be a reason for this treason. The more the mass of the system the more is the visibility and the more is the impact.
To quote such an incident what else can be better than the latest Google shutdown, known as
"#googlefail"/"Googmayham"/"Googmayharm" to many. To elaborate this, I would say its just a mere human error that caused the problem. But the impact was so huge that it made people believe that the mighty system was hacked by hackers(non-ethical of course) which would have caused a Billions or trillions of dollar loss to stakeholders. "Users were stranded in the blogosphere" is what was quoted by
The Timesonline. Some even believed that "the glitch showed the dangers of having most people in the world relying on the Google “
monoculture” for internet searches". And surprisingly this was not the first time
Google went down due to glitch in their system, their subsidiary video streaming site "
Youtube" underwent the same fate when the site was blocked by Pakistan who diverted it to an internet
Blackhole. Coming back to #googlefail, the symptoms were, users getting a warning on every search which said "This site may harm your computer". The same warning as some of us might have faced while searching stuff over Google. Apparently Google analytic prohibits or warns users to visit infected(by malware,spyware) sites.
Well, moving on to a much physical (i.e. out of cyberspace) example, I must quote the plight while I was travelling across the country. I termed it "The Plight of the flight". Most of us prefer being airborne when it comes to travelling. Reasons are numerous. Although this venture of mine almost made me promise myself not be airborne again. There I was sitting at an aerodrome in the western part of the country at 2000 Hrs. The flight was on schedule and we were asked to board. The interiors (and the exteriors as well) of our Govt. approved carrier are not so pleasing and neither is the cabin crew. After spending a good half an hour at the base the craft finally made it to the runway. But as I mentioned that it was more of a plight than a flight, the pilot announced and instructed us to de-plane the craft as it could not take off due to some technical faults or "Fatal Error"/"Malfunction"(2100 Hrs). At once I thought that god saved me that day. They apparently arranged for some other craft which was supposed to depart at 2200 hrs. The "arranged" craft was of similar concoction. The weather condition was real bad as a depression had hit the bay. Rains were infrequent with wild wind and thundering clouds. The takeoff was not much pleasant and the craft was on extreme turbulence as it crossed the thick clouds and the blazing thunderbolts. The fear was apparent on peoples eyes, some praying, some getting nausea-tic and impatiently pressing the assistance button overhead. A co-passenger blurted "why didn't i traveled this day by land", and i thought i wish I did too. But experience matters when it comes to handling fatal errors or malfunctions, be it an aircraft, a small computer program, a huge project module, a live stage show, or an open heart surgery. The pilots of the crafts were of similar lines as they swished and swooped us past by the thunders and the clouds.
Here the impact must've been felt only by a bunch of passengers traveling by the craft that day. But the impact was deep, tough. People were behind schedule, and so was I. I am dead sure as most of them had decided not to get any reservations in that carrier henceforth. But, all this because of just a glitch, a FATAL ERROR, A Malfunction..
P.S. You can read the full #googlefail story here 
Picture courtesy: Classic Rock stars encyclopedia.Clicked by myself
Picture courtesy: Classic Rock stars encyclopedia.Clicked by myself
