Originally Posted by
megan
Just picking a year at random 2019 there were 12 crashes with the loss of 261 lives, 157 of those were the Ethiopian MAX. I very much doubt pax would accept no crew, I certainly won't, particularly with QF 32 in mind.
The Ethiopain MAx is probably not the best example to take, there are still a lot of knowledgeable people out there that believe that had the crew followed strictly the new MCAS poscedure the aircraft would not have crashed. aAfully automated aircraft would have followed the procedure, cannot be programmed otherwise.
But to be even more the Devil's advocate. let's take the latest incident covered here : the AA near ground collsion at JFK. Had AA been fully automated , the ATC computer would have instructed dep 4L. cross 31L at K, and the aircrfaft would have just followed that and not end up crossing 4L. But that said. when dealing with full automation ( and ATC my line of work we have the same debate ) I keep on reminding engineers one of the good old Al Wiener law : "
Whenever you solve a problem you usually create another one. You can only hope that the one you created is less critical than the one you eliminated."
Fully automated aircrfaft will have their own issues . It won't be easy , and it will take time . But one day . especailly after a big pilot blunder taking many lives.. who can say never..?..