From the Washington Post's coverage of President Bush's speech at ORD:
"He said the government will offer grants to develop new airline safety technology, such as video systems to allow pilots to monitor the passenger cabin and transponders that cannot be shut off from the cockpit and continuously relay a plane's location to air traffic controllers. >>He also said the government will explore the possibility of allowing air traffic controllers to take over the helm of a plane in trouble and land it by remote control. Aviation experts say such technology is well within reach.<<"
This would be something new, even if the technology is feasible on newer fly by wire aircraft, would the cost of training and other issues be worth whatever incremental margin of safety this would add? Sounds a lot like the research to control aircraft attitude by thrust alone proposed after the UAL Sioux City DC-10 crash. Perhaps not worth the money invested considering the low probability that it would indeed save lives someday.
The cabin video and transponder proposals sound much more reasonable to me.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...2001Sep27.html