Page 17 - AAA MARCH - APRIL 2015 Online Magazine

FEATURE AviATion REGULATion

area. There were no automated reports of on board robot will be able to speak, result in fatal action. Adding new rules
equipment failures. listen, manipulate flight controls and read while blatantly ignoring existing ones,
Besides the rule of two taking shape, instruments. is not likely to make the sky safer. The
technological solutions that could There are several other experimental human factor is a very important subject.
prevent deliberate actions by a crew or projects such as the honeywell-developed The need of the hour is to encourage pilots
commandeer are also under development. automatic recovery system for fly-by- to be open about their medical and mental
Reports indicate that NASA is wire aircraft. In 2005, flight tests of the conditions and for the Regulators and
developing a system that would permit a system were conducted with a United the airlines to assist in overcoming any
ground-based first officer to take control Airlines A319 in airspace near Monterrey, problem.”
of the aircraft. Researches are on to California.
explore the possibilities of moving the According to honeywell the tests
co-pilot out of the cockpit on commercial demonstrated that the automatic flight
flights, and instead use a single remote controls could be reprogrammed to
operator to serve as co-pilot for multiple assume control of the airliner, rather
aircraft. According to The New York Times, than simply give the pilot a warning. The
this year the Defence Advanced Research system also was tested in flight aboard
Projects Agency, the Pentagon research honeywell’s Beech King Air testbed.
organization, will take the next step in however, Capt. A. Ranganathan,
plane automation with the Aircrew Labour a former airline instructor pilot and According to a crew member
of India’s low-cost carrier
In-Cockpit Automation System, or Alias. former member of Civil Aviation Safety IndiGo airlines, if one pilot
Sometime this year, the agency will begin Advisory Council, in an opinion piece, needed a toilet break, one
flight testing a robot that can be quickly stated: “Regulators and airlines should of the crew members would
installed in the right seat of military understand that stress can drive a human join the remaining pilot in the
aircraft to act as the co-pilot. The portable being to unreasonable decisions that could locked cockpit
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