Take over an airliner by remote control if you cannot trust the pilot anymore. This is what the German aviation authority had urged the airline industry to create. German aviation security experts want a technology that will allow air traffic controllers to override a pilot’s commands and take over the aircraft in emergency situations.
Klaus Dieter Scheurle, head of the German Air Safety organization, explained it today at a press conference.
The idea emerges following the tragedy of Germanwings Flight 9525 on March 24, where co-pilot Andreas Lubitz locked himself in the cockpit and deliberately crashed the aircraft killing all 150 people onboard.
“Such an event might cause us to reconsider systems which would allow the control of aircraft to be taken over by personnel on the ground in emergency situations,” Scheurle said.
The idea is to allow air traffic controllers to take over an aircraft and set it on a pre-programmed safe course for landing. Although similar guidance systems are already used in piloting drones, such technology is unlikely to be deployed in commercial aircraft within the next decade.
Schaurle certainly doesn’t trust pilots. He is convinced such an incident will occur again and said, “We must think about how to manage them so that nothing bad happens.”
German pilots’ union, Vereinigung Cockpit, has already argued against the introduction of such a system, saying only by sitting inside the cabin can one make a fully-informed assessment of the situation and make a decision.
Reminding of a new vulnerability and risks such a system would pose, the British Airline Pilots’ Association (BALPA) expressed skepticism for the remote-controlled landing.
Just this week the US Government Accountability Office warned that modern commercial aircraft packed with electronics are already vulnerable to sabotage through hacking, even without such a full-fledged remote control system.
At the end of the day, the question remains: What happens if you can no longer rely on and trust your pilot?
WHAT TO TAKE AWAY FROM THIS ARTICLE:
- The idea is to allow air traffic controllers to take over an aircraft and set it on a pre-programmed safe course for landing.
- German pilots' union, Vereinigung Cockpit, has already argued against the introduction of such a system, saying only by sitting inside the cabin can one make a fully-informed assessment of the situation and make a decision.
- “Such an event might cause us to reconsider systems which would allow the control of aircraft to be taken over by personnel on the ground in emergency situations,” Scheurle said.
