The missing human factor

Sully (2016)
Director: Clint Eastwood

This movie is quite relevant in this time and age. The democratisation of access to information and freedom to verbalise has reached such a height that everyone with half a brain is a warrior, at least in cyberspace. With the luxury of an obscene amount of information that their disposal assisted by the ease of artificial intelligence (which, knowledge-wise, coincidentally is as much as its inventor), turns every armchair critic into a seeker of the Truth and a self-appointed Robin Hood of the oppressed.

Heroes are born every day, but most of them remain unknown to us all. They appear out of thin air at the necessary time, do things beyond their expected capacity and disappear as quickly as the manifest. Sadly, many a time, their genuine intentions are questioned and put under the spotlight for scrutiny. Too much trust is placed on computer simulations. The human factors like empathy and compassion which had brought mankind through so many obstacles throughout their civilisation are swept under the carpet. We tend to think that artificial intelligence (AI) can replace Man. We forget that there is a reason why AI is labelled artificial in the first place.

This film is another of Eastwood's offerings to celebrate the deed of an ordinary man, based on a true story. Captain Sullenberger is an experienced pilot of American Airlines. Soon after lift-off from La Guardia airport of New York, both his aircraft engines failed after an encounter with a skein of geese. Despite orders from the control towers to redirect the plane to other airports, the good Captain made the calculated judgement to land the plane on the Hudson River instead. Even though all his 155 occupants escaped injury, the aircraft was a write-off. At the internal enquiry, he was questioned along the line of pilot error for the 'accident' for landing in the river rather than the airports as directed. Computer simulations concurred that damage to the vessel could have been averted if he had followed orders.

In this modern world where every modality of treatment, technology or device is assessed through comparative experiments and randomised double-blind studies, we forget the human element that is linked to the outcome of any endeavour. Lately, the scientific community has also realised that reproducibility is many findings in what is considered as hallmark studies strangely cannot be replicated! Experience plays a pivotal in decision making. Not all world-changing moments can be decided from cookbooks.

Living on a prayer?

There was an anaesthetic medical officer with whom I had misfortunate to work with always had the, at least I thought so, annoying habit of encouraging the patient that he was going to anaesthetise to engage in a little prayer. He would do so as he was just going to induce sleep. The puzzling thing is that even when a regional anaesthetic failed to induce desired actions, he would ask the patient to brace and say a little prayer!

To a staunch believer, what the good doctor does seem to appear just right; that we are mere mortals, that we should not be too cocky, that everything is indeed not under our control and that we are not infallible. In the other words, we dress the wound, He heals it!

To most people, rationalists and atheists, a call for prayer may sound like a desperate measure and the one that most people resort to when all other humanly endeavours have failed! In other words, a mayday message saying, "only a miracle can save you now!"

In the modern world, in a so-called civilised culture, the name of God is rarely invoked in the day to day conversation. Everybody is expected to perform the job they are entrusted with and to do pass the buck to anybody else, especially God.

At certain times in Japan, spirituality was infused with nationalistic spirit. Failure to uphold patriotic calls would mean immediate self-murder (seppuku).


What transpired in the recent kerfuffle over the pilot's announcement PA system asking the passengers to pray when the plane went into engine problems, is probably a clash of cultures. On the pilot side, it was probably acceptable to mention God's name under his every breath whether it meant it or not. It could be a sort of figure of speech. On the recipient's side, they likely must be telling under their murmurs (and prayers), "No, you jolly well take responsibility of your whatever you have done and don't ask God to bail you out!"

Now, everyone can fly (the plane)!

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.

Say a little prayer...

You cannot fault me for thinking that when I am air bound, I am just a particle in the sky away the scrutiny of eyes of people who were supposed to be on a lookout for my welfare. From a person whose knowledge of projectile does not go beyond the problems I have solved in Mechanical Mathematics and understanding projectile vomiting, I cannot be faulted to think that if anything were to go wrong in stratosphere, I would be literally on a free fall. Nobody would know where I am and where to look for me.
It is not paranoia or some kind of phobia of flying that drove me to think so.
10  months ago, our plane went missing and till date no one has a clue where it went, where to look for it and what came out the billions spent looking for it.
And more recently, another one went missing. They had all the communication records and flight path at their disposal and yet 2 weeks into its disappearance, they are unable to put a closure to the mishap.
So, when you are up there, you are really on your own. Nobody has a clue where you are and what to do in case something goes wrong. Time spent listening to flight safety instructions can be better spent praying. That is, if anyone out there is even listening... What else can you do but hope?

He thought he ruled the skies!

Above us only sky?

"Why is it that people get all emotional when a plane goes down in its line of duty?" complained a friend after viewing umpteen posts of the downing of a plane involving 166 and  hardly anything on the massive floods that submerged almost the whole of the east coast of the peninsular, affecting close to 200,000 people of all strata and tears that would fall after the aftermath.
Is it because traditionally flying involved people who are important performing jobs which would literally alter the course of mankind? Perhaps, it does not hold water anymore, since, now everyone can fly! The glitz of flying as being the domain of the rich and famous was relevant in mid 20th century.
Is that the reason so much of resources is spent on its search and rescue missions?
I tend to think that perhaps, man's ability to fly is one giant step in their civilisation. Being a biped, walking on land, ability to fly off the ground with no physical contact with Mother Gaia is a feather in his cap (pun unintended) and giant step in advancement. He, through generations, was fascinated with  the wing spanning feathered animals. He had tried disastrously to mimic them in many laughable and ridiculously failed manoeuvres.
Not being the one to succumb to the pressures of the forces of Nature, he constantly assesses and revises the shortfalls in his inventions to attain perfection.
So, when his dear invention meets failure, he naturally feels defeated and wants to get to the bottom of the matter!
P/S: Looking at the turn events of aviation mishaps of late, it appear that the passengers are actually travelling at the mercy of element of chance. Nobody actually seem to know exactly what is happening on air and where actually is the air craft. When all hell break, these deficiencies surface.