Friday, March 28, 2014

Passenger plane pilots are more and more like computer operators

Most of the public still thinks of passenger plane pilots like the old Stick and rudder days. But those days are gone now for the most part. It started in jet fighters where the computer overode the actions of the pilot and then moved to passenger planes over time for (Safety?). However, it has gotten to the point where if there is a computer glitch often a whole lot of people are dead because often the pilot or pilots cannot find the problem in time to save themselves or the passengers. I'm thinking that this is what happened to the Malaysian flight as well.

If you think about pilots as being  very similar to the man in the driver's seat not touching the controls except in an emergency like in a self driving Google Prius car here on earth, then you have a better idea than most do of what it is actually like to be a pilot on a passenger plane today. So, when emergencies arise and there is no indicator of what went wrong by the software or the instruments often people die like they did in this Malaysian Air flight.

Now, this may be blamed on "Pilot error" but often today when you hear the words "pilot error" it is really systems errors which could be anything to electrical failures to software errors to control surface electrical motor errors to automatic pilot errors but often it is not "pilot errors" but systems errors that brings big planes down now.

And if companies and nations still insist upon calling these systems errors as "pilot errors" and don't change the software, or technology to be more efficient then you are simply going to see more and more people die in really crazy unexplainable ways like in the Malaysian Air lines flight. And this is true worldwide and especially going to be true in smaller countries that are humid like Malaysia and others. Because moisture and humidity is hell on electronic components of all kinds in passenger planes.

No comments: