Cockpitvisit:
Why does a pilot's job require more privacy than e.g. a flight attendant?
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Every cashier's office with a just few thousand bucks at stake is equipped with a camera recorder today, but a pilot's office with several hundred lives at stake isn't???
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In my opinion as a cowardly paying pax, pilots willing to sacrifice safety for a little bit of their own privacy simply don't belong in the cockpit.
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Even though I personally fail to see any reason for pilots to expect some super privacy. Isn't a cockpit camera (with discipline use allowed) similar to riding with a check pilot every time?
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Paying passengers on some airlines are routinely observed by a video camera from the cockpit door - should I expect my nose picking onboard the plane to appear on youtube too?
Cockpitvisit, you are mixing up a lot of things. And have misunderstood a great deal (combined with a great part of disrespect as well).
From what you are suggesting, the pilots should be recorded because possible misconduct could be revealed (like a cashier stealing from the register), and hence every flight would be like a check flight. That would require someone to actually watch every recording. Big news for you, that is not done with voice recordings either, nor is it the purpose of those. However, we are being "watched" already with data recordings that a being stored on every flight and reviewed if anything is out of the ordinary. That is actually quite enough (combined with the semi- and annual-checks) to catch someone who regularly disregard the operating procedures.
Flight attendants and passengers
are not being observed by means of cameras. The entry door to the cockpit
is, however. There are no cameras in the cabin, and the there are no cameras that are directed at Flight attendants work places in particular. If a Flight attendant or a passenger passes by the area of the cockpit entrance door, they will briefly appear on a monitor in the cockpit (when/if switched on, mostly not),
and this will not be recorded or stored in any way. The purpose of these cameras, are to allow the pilots to identify persons standing in front of the door without having to leave their seats to look through the peephole, not to observe what the Flight Attendants are doing nor to observe what's going on in the cabin. These cameras are not suitable for either.
So let's get back to the point,
post-accident use (not check ride or to catch undisciplined pilots scratching their belly and picking their nose). Let's talk the real interesting, economical feasibility vs. achieved increase in safety. To equip every airline in the world with such system would cost an astronomical amount. Safety benefit? Close to none. First it would not prevent accidents from happening. You would have to wait for an accident, that
would be unsolvable by any other means but such a camera system. How many accidents have we had in, say, the last 20 years of such kind? Secondly, the recorded evidence would have to be of such kind, that lesson could be learned that would increase safety. We are in this case talking a microscopic chance that anything revolutionary could come from such recordings. All at a gigantic cost which could have been used elsewhere to enhance safety.
When someone with a profile like yours (registered for 10 years, obviously not a professional and only 15 posts) make controversial posts like this, I get curious and click "find more posts by user". I see that you are also disgruntled that pilots don't like to go through body scanners (with unknown health effects when done every single day for an entire career) or being "felt up" by security personnel every day before going to work. Ending up in a absolutely disrespectful comment like this one:
Now you may argue that pilots are essential to flying a plane - but so are paying passengers! So there is absolutely no reason why pilots should be trusted any more an ordinary pax, sorry.
It is clear that you resent pilots, possibly being denied a cockpit visit by one, (surely you would be by myself) or not making the cut to become a pilot yourself. Hence, you pretty much disqualified yourself to participate in the discussion in a meaningful way.