Big red button
Having read most of the recent air Asia thread along with others in the past I need to put forward an idea to be picked apart by those in the know.
Before I start I should say I am regular slf occasional pilot and have posted in here to avoid the wrath of those who (on occasions supposedly) know what they are talking about.
I also need to say I am well aware of technicalities making parts of my suggestion impractical but that is the whole point of asking and discussion.
A number of comments recently have asked if the cockpit needs a 'big red button' to give full manual control to the pilots. My suggestion instead is a 'big red button' labeled Mayday and guarded if necessary that causes the plane to automatically start shouting to the world it is in trouble and provide some details. For example it could send an automated voice message across the vhf emergency channel in the correct format for a mayday (maybe just once or at defined intervals to avoid blocking), it would not be hard to have a synthesised voice read out critical information such as position, alt, speed heading, vs etc so that humans listening are made aware f the problem the system at the same time would use any other means on the plane to shout loudly as well, for example ACARS messages, EPIRB or ELT being enabled, systems transmitting that satellites can receive, even using the pax cabin phones to call a list of numbers and again read out the details.
The general principle of aviate navigate communicate is clearly still essential but in this day and age the last of these should not be overlooked in either calling for help or in the worst case allowing the outside world a chance of finding out what has happened. The 'big red button' could allow at least some data to get out without distracting the crew at a critical time.