Only You Can Stop It!
This sounds like a plot out of a novel coming true, but truth is stranger than fiction. The powers to be are attempting to rid the flight deck of one pilot and operate single pilot. ALPA says, "The troublesome language was added by the Science Committee." This feels more like a business decision than a science decision. I wonder, who is funding that committee"
The House of Representatives released a new Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reauthorization bill (H.R. 4). The scary part of this bill is Section 744. Remove a pilot.
Section 744 calls for FAA and NASA to develop "virtual copilot" aircraft for cargo operations with the idea of ground-based human or artificial intelligence support for single-piloted aircraft. Please don't think that the world is safe if it's only a cargo aircraft versus a passenger flight. The real issues is where impact will takes place. Besides...
Cargo first, Passengers next.
Air carriers are designed for more than one pilot in the flight deck, not only for workload management, but also to protect against the potential incapacitation of one of the pilots. Replacing one of the crewmembers with someone in a remote location would not only jeopardize the quality of crew resource management, crew coordination, create an overload situation in the event of an incident, but would also open the skies to the next level of terrorism.
If a ground-based operator can take control of my airline,
that means anyone can.
We do not want control of our aircraft
by someone on the ground.
If this technology is built and implemented, removing a pilot and allowing ground control, we have just opened pandora's box. This could be setting the stage for 911 all over again, but on a much larger scale. Only this time the terrorists won't need to be on the plane, they can hack into the system from the ground. Aviation expert andABC News correspondent, John Nance, wrote a novel, Final Approach, with this theme. Please help me keep his novel a work of fiction.
Congressman Matt Cartwright (PA-17) has offered an amendment to remove Section 744 to retain the safety of our aircraft operations. Your help is needed to let Congress know that that a single pilot is not safe in commercial airline operations.
Contact your United States Representative's office in Washington by phone today and insist they act to:
Reject the Westerman Amendment to H.R. 4.
Please call:
Congressman Drew Ferguson (R-GA) at: 202-225-5901
Congressman Jason Lewis (R-MN) at 202-225-2271
To Stop Section 744
You have no time to waste
Make that call today!
Enjoy the Journey!
XO Karlene
Yikes... Can Canadians help? I would imagine
ReplyDeletethat American cargo planes do enter Canadian Air Space. Has John Nance done a follow up story?
(he might have to plug his book, in the process)
I think they should, since these planes will be flying in your airspace and over your house.
DeleteA Congressman making a decision to remove a pilot from the cockpit, replace him/her with an it or a remote person and the FAA is going to try to implement that plan.... Let's see a corrupted politician no doubt and a FAA person/personnel most of whom are pilots that couldn't make it on the airlines so they became feds.... Wrong combination of ideas and factors that shouldn't be allowed to continue or spread. It is obvious to me that these people do not live in our reality and besides being a wrong and dangerous idea, it seems it is a purely economic decision at the cost of safety.
ReplyDeleteI fly cargo and we operate multi-crew consisting of 3 or 4 pilots per flight so single pilot is beginning to look and sound like a bad joke. Shame on them.
Humberto, I used to fly cargo. Cargo or passenger, we have equally the same responsibilities, and the same equipment.
DeleteI agree... to enable this to occur, would be at the detriment to safety. Unfortunately the decision makers are thinking of $$$ only, and not the long term impact to safety. This is a very dangerous idea.
Thank you so much for your comment!