fly_antonov
Yes, pilots make errors. Do these stats also say, why the pilots made those errors? Was it a lack of training, lack of recruitment, insufficient sop's, mistake in the manuals, lack in aircraft/cockpit design, fatigued pilots, weather...? Be careful with stats. (Was it Churchill who once said he would only believe in stats made by himself?)
Your attitude reflects precisely the Airbus philosophy. Mind if i ask whether you're involved in one or other way for an Airbus project? At least you seem familiar with Airbus. Soon after the A320 was introduced 20 years ago, Airbus did some - for an engineer minor, for an aviator major - modifications regarding automatics on 320. Do you remember what and why?
Can you distinguish between what is technically possible and what makes sense? When you design an aircraft/cockpit, do you ask pilots on the line for feedback?
Airlines are organised in lobbies, like eg. in Brussels. They lobby against relaxing flight time and duty limitations (and basically anything which reduces the risk of pilot error), they reduce days off and leave --> more fatigued (and p1ssed off) crew --> increased risk of pilot error --> higher ranks for pilot error in stats --> argument for airlines to remove the pilots from the cockpit.
Military flying is a different world. Who cares, when a fighter jet or a UAV falls from the skies. What counts is only the pilot's life and mission accomplishment. How about commercial aviation? Passengers used to pay to travel from a to b with highest safety standards. The thick safety margin worked out by the industry in the past century is progressively reduced. Whenever I fly an ETOPS segment over a sea, honestly I don't feel comfortable I must say.
What about non-commercial flights? Would general aviation then disappear? What about biz-jets? Since these "private" non-commercial flights share the same airspace, would they also be fully automated? Or would it be a mixed airspace of fully, semi and non-automated commercial and non-commercial flights? How would they interact with each other?
At present, the pilot group is the only one in the world seriously concerned about safety of a flight. 2027 is the year, when flight safety will definitively be thrown over board, sacrificed for the profits of airline managers. Well paid pilots of an airline make up around 5% of the total costs. Get rid of those 5%, add a couple of pax seats more and forget about safety! Welcome to the world of capitalizm. If it's cheaper to kill people than to save their lives, it should be done, the risk will be taken because it's economically correct.
I hope I'll be able to see the first fully automated pilotless airliner accident (I 'm very sorry for the people on board). I wonder how the public's response will be. And in the future stats, there will be no more "70% pilot error", but "95% automatics error". What would the next step be?
Would Warren Buff*t, Ben B*rnanke, Daniel Vas*lla, Michail Chod0rkowski and other bank and industry boss, oligarchs and sheikhs love to be flown in a pilotless aircraft? Air Force One? I would trust the fully automated aircraft after all and every presidential flights are flown pilotless - maybe. Though, their safety measures will still be different, ie. much higher.
Blue Skies