I was watching a program last night about Quantas flight 72 that was flying between Singapore and Perth in October 2008. It basically was about a routine flight that became a nightmare because of a rogue computer.
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Luckily for everyone on board they had a highly skilled Captain who went back to what he had been taught at fighter school. The Captain had extensive training in the States and was part of the Top Gun F-14 elite school of pilots. What saved them was he went back to the basics of not fighting the computer,but taking his hands off the flight control stick. Other planes have crashed with this same issue he experienced ,but those pilots and passengers weren't so lucky or lacked his knowledge.
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The readings the computer gave out didn't make sense as it flashed for stalling speed which is the slowest an aircraft can go before cutting out and flashing for over speed at the same time which is the fastest an aeroplane can go. The plane suddenly went into a massive decent putting passengers through the roof and baggage compartments. This happened on two occasions before they safely landed with over 100 injured passengers.
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What I found interesting though is the Captain said that too much control has been given to artificial intelligence these days. I am on the same page as him on this as I would be reluctant to have a computerized car drive me around. What I fear the most is the future generations are going to rely on this too heavily with no experience to take over in case of a malfunction.
If we go back to the flying can you imagine if you had an average pilot on board just to look good for the passengers as he is only overseeing a computer and has little or no say. This is happening already with South African Airways as they have reduced the qualifications for the entry exam for pilots.I have no problem flying as long as the pilot is experienced and has the correct qualifications if something goes wrong.
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I know they are pushing young pilots today and have made it easier for them by accepting candidates with a 50 percent pass rate in their final exams. I can recall you needed high qualifications in Mathematics and Science before and nothing less than 80 percent. Most pilots were hired after doing stints with the airforce. Like the Australian pilot on this unlucky flight he was a candidate at Top Gun and went on to serve in training pilots in the Australian Airforce before joining Quantas.
It does scare the bejeebers out of me that standards have dropped and we are virtually relying on computers to fly the plane. I would take my chances on a computer over one of the new pilots they are knocking out of here today. This is one of the reasons why I don't fly with the local airlines anymore. It is about confidence and my luck I will have one of the new shining stars who are replacing the skilled Captains who are deemed too expensive today.
I can see more air disasters in the future as things do happen more regularly than we would like to know and the only reason we are unaware is the pilots are highly skilled and know what to do. This however is changing due to cost savings and I feel they are now putting passengers at risk for the sake of the bottom line.