The tagline 'Now everyone can fly' must be the most overused, ridiculed and abused business tagline ever in Malaysia. Now only every Tom, Dick and Harry can fly, and Jane and Mary be stewardesses; the news on a podcast recently convinced me that even any Ahmad, Ah Chong and Samy can fly a plane!
You see, there was an analysis of the ill-fated Air France 447 from Rio de Janeiro to Paris. As we all know, it went down, and it took 2 years for its wreckage and flight decoder to be found and analysed.
My untrained aeronautically challenged mind interpreted the simplistic turns of events as such...
The plane, an Airbus, was cruising on autopilot at 37,000 feet over the Atlantic Ocean. It was manned by 2 co-pilots after the captain retired to take a nap as the going was easy. There was a minor storm, noting alarming, but it caused a little frosting over one of the wings. That is when all hell broke loose. Airbus has an automatic system called 'fly-by-wire'. It is supposed to aid manoeuvring, but it decided to take charge. It could not be overwritten. The plane stalled without the knowledge of the co-pilots. The captain who arrived at the scene, puzzled by the state of affairs, took the mistaken step of plunging downwards and accelerating towards the ocean floor.
Investigators who analysed the chain of events cautioned that perhaps flying was too much automated. Admittedly, that automation was initiated to easing flying and rectify inadvertent errors. Over time, it appears as though that autopilot seems to be doing all the piloting proper. Apparently, a pilot who clocks 300 hours of flying only does 4-6 hours of actual flying. Otherwise, he is just setting the flight plans and punching in data. Hence, there is a dearth of physical flying as in the old days. And there is no reason for an engineer to be onboard anymore as computers can do that! There is only so much simulated flights can do.
Whatever is said and done, automation is here to stay. In fact, in the not so near future, we may see pilotless planes. Despite the bad reputation that surrounds the airline industry today, the incidence of an air crash is only 2.8 per a million flight take-off! It is still safe, and everyone can fly from point A to point B with peace of mind.
You see, there was an analysis of the ill-fated Air France 447 from Rio de Janeiro to Paris. As we all know, it went down, and it took 2 years for its wreckage and flight decoder to be found and analysed.My untrained aeronautically challenged mind interpreted the simplistic turns of events as such...
The plane, an Airbus, was cruising on autopilot at 37,000 feet over the Atlantic Ocean. It was manned by 2 co-pilots after the captain retired to take a nap as the going was easy. There was a minor storm, noting alarming, but it caused a little frosting over one of the wings. That is when all hell broke loose. Airbus has an automatic system called 'fly-by-wire'. It is supposed to aid manoeuvring, but it decided to take charge. It could not be overwritten. The plane stalled without the knowledge of the co-pilots. The captain who arrived at the scene, puzzled by the state of affairs, took the mistaken step of plunging downwards and accelerating towards the ocean floor.
Investigators who analysed the chain of events cautioned that perhaps flying was too much automated. Admittedly, that automation was initiated to easing flying and rectify inadvertent errors. Over time, it appears as though that autopilot seems to be doing all the piloting proper. Apparently, a pilot who clocks 300 hours of flying only does 4-6 hours of actual flying. Otherwise, he is just setting the flight plans and punching in data. Hence, there is a dearth of physical flying as in the old days. And there is no reason for an engineer to be onboard anymore as computers can do that! There is only so much simulated flights can do.
Whatever is said and done, automation is here to stay. In fact, in the not so near future, we may see pilotless planes. Despite the bad reputation that surrounds the airline industry today, the incidence of an air crash is only 2.8 per a million flight take-off! It is still safe, and everyone can fly from point A to point B with peace of mind.
Comments
Post a Comment