Video cameras in the cockpit will undoubtedly follow the same path as many of the other safety "innovations" originally opposed by the unions like cockpit voice recorders, locked cockpit doors and drug and alcohol testing.
First the union will say no way, never, it's not required. It won't help, it doesn't matter, it doesn't improve safety. It's an invasion of privacy, it challenges the pilot's command authority, it's not allowed under the contract etc., etc., etc. We'll have a national strike, we'll show 'em.
Then, a couple of years later the union will say it's a done deal, our hands are tied, there is nothing we can do about it...
>>I remember riding on a DC-10 going into KLGA and watching a live feed from the cockpit. Wino probably knows the history of this video in the cockpit with AA. I don’t why they stopped.<<
I believe American quit using the cockpit cameras a couple of years after the AA 191 DC-10 crash at ORD in 1979. Victims' family lawyers claimed that extra compensation was due since the pax saw the disaster unfolding on the screen in the seconds before the crash.
Of course, no mention of cockpit cameras at AA would be complete without the "gorilla hand" story. Here's one version from, appropriately, the archive of alt.folklore.urban:
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Back in the early 80's, American Airlines experimented with video
cameras in the cockpit so the passengers could see the plane taking off and landing. The camera was situated behind the pilots' seats looking forward over the throttle quadrant.
One day, a 737 [did AA have them in the early '80's?] crew decided to have some fun. The co-pilot, who was due to fly the leg, obtained the arm from a gorilla outfit, and wore this over his left arm, so that all you could see on the camera was a huge hairy paw managing the throttles. What really upset the people, however, was that after they had landed, and were taxiing in to the ramp, the captain's hand is seen passing across a peeled banana, which the co-pilot's hand grabs.
American's management thought this was so funny, they gave the pilots 30-day suspensions without pay.
Interestingly, though, one hears rumours about black-market versionsof the video from time to time.