Originally Posted by
macdo
If you can't turn 'em off, what you gonna do when they catch fire! DOH!
I really despair of some of the articles written about aviation.
A simplistic solution could be something along these lines.
The secondary transponder and satcom ( which must send out position data even in the basic ping) are both coded with info showing it is the secondaries that are operating.
The power to these secondaries is held off by a relay, the relay is turn is operated by the CB to the primaries, pull the primary CB the relay unlatches and the secondaries power up (from a different bus).
In all normal situations (ie nothing untoward is happening hijack etc) wouldn't that suffice.
Now it the unlikely event that one of the secondaries catches fire the CB for secondaries are outside the cockpit under control if CS who would be instructed to pull them, you could even add a small camera and lcd display so the CS could confirm the bay was indeed on fire.
Surely it is not beyond the ability of man to design some fail safe system along these lines, yes there is a cost but the reassurance is worth it?, and yes there will be objections to CS having control of a CB but are there ultimately reasons not to do it.