Anti-hijacking software

[RiverCity]

My brother just sent this to me (Sunday morning). Anyone hear about it? I'd be afraid the program would lock up (as computer programs too often do) and the pilot would not be able to control the plane.

Caught the morning news from Montréal and they did a piece on a software company out of Tacoma, Washington that has developed a program whereas if the plane deviates from its planned course, a message flashes up on the Air Traffic Control tower, and also on the ground. A camera starts running in the cockpit, and a microphone also goes online. The plane is then taken over by the computer and by the automatic pilot, is brought into the nearest available airport, or it circles until it can land.

[ 21 October 2001: Message edited by: RiverCity ]

[Capt PPRuNe]

As far as I am aware all current commercial aircraft, and certainly the Boeings that I fly require human input from the flight deck to be able to perform an autoland, a fact that many of the writers of these articles seem oblivious of and therefore do not deserve the time of day as far as I am concerned. If they are unable to do even a bit of research then they only show themselves up to be typical of the dipsticks that inhabit the tabloid world.

This thread is now going to the Tech Log forum if anyone wants to discuss the issues.

[ 21 October 2001: Message edited by: Capt PPRuNe ]

[RiverCity]

Reason I brought this up was that someone else who is deep into software development, said that a company (he did not remember the name) had proposed the same thing. He thought it was still in development.

A third person also made reference to having heard about it.

Nothing to do with tabloids. Nothing to do with writers. Everything to do with software companies and their announcements.

[Stand by your man]

A brilliant idea, this, NOT!!!

Just think, instead of having to go to all that trouble to hijack one aircraft, the bad guys could just hijack an ATC centre and take control of dozens of aircraft.

Jeez, some people......

[RiverCity]

I dunno ... maybe some software guys, when they are bored, sit around saying, "Hey, guys, let's invent something really esoteric. Let's invent a program that will take over the airplane, ping up the nearest airport, engage its master computer landing program, link it to the airplane's autoland and also have a radio link to ATC!"

Any terrorists reading this, please disregad and log out.

[Squawk 8888]

I remember reading the story in the business section of the local bugle here, the important thing to remember is that in IT, just as in show business, there's no such thing as bad publicity. The proposal was floated by the owner of a software firm, and this industry has been bleeding all year. I seriously doubt that it was a serious proposal; I think they were just using 9/11 as an opportunity to get their names in the paper. As a full-time programmer and weekend pilot I can tell you that given the current state of technology there is simply no way that such a complex system could be made reliable enough to entrust with human lives.