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Pilots aren't always that eagle-eyed, and it is of course much more difficult at night. The very close call of the Air Canada jet that nearly landed on four or

by bdamm 7y ago

Pilots aren't always that eagle-eyed, and it is of course much more difficult at night. The very close call of the Air Canada jet that nearly landed on four or five other jets waiting on the taxiway at SFO is a testament to just how badly this can go. And an attack that leads the aircraft into terrain or buildings could put the aircraft into a local minimum that it can't fly out of. Frankly aviation is ripe for cyber attack. The problem is not simple to solve, mainly because introducing crypto into critical navigation systems will also introduce failures where legitimate service is interrupted due to system glitches. It will take crashing a jet before the industry decides to take this seriously, and it is entirely possible that a terrorist group or state actor will use this weakness. Government and industry can and would respond, but it would take money and time.

dontbenebby 7y ago
>Pilots aren't always that eagle-eyed, and it is of course much more difficult at night. I would not place blame with a pilot who is cleared for landing, and fails to see something on the runway. Even if they are making a good faith effort to scan the runway, it's hard to see things from the sky with your eyes. >It will take crashing a jet before the industry decides to take this seriously, and it is entirely possible that a terrorist group or state actor will use this weakness. I agree it's an issue that should be worked on, but I think it's much more likely (as a parent pointed out) someone will simply fly a drone into the airspace. After all, bird strike incidents are a major cause of crashes: >The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) estimates bird strikes cost US aviation 400 million dollars annually and have resulted in over 200 worldwide deaths since 1988.[56] In the United Kingdom, the Central Science Laboratory estimates[8] that worldwide, the cost of birdstrikes to airlines is around US$1.2 billion annually. This cost includes direct repair cost and lost revenue opportunities while the damaged aircraft is out of service. Estimating that 80% of bird strikes are unreported, there were 4,300 bird strikes listed by the United States Air Force and 5,900 by US civil aircraft in 2003. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bird_strike https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bird_strike
- bdamm 7y ago
  Birds do most of the work to avoid bird strikes, and are avoiding airplanes daily. The same can't be said for terrorists.

by bdamm 7y ago

dontbenebby 7y ago

>Pilots aren't always that eagle-eyed, and it is of course much more difficult at night. I would not place blame with a pilot who is cleared for landing, and fails to see something on the runway. Even if they are making a good faith effort to scan the runway, it's hard to see things from the sky with your eyes. >It will take crashing a jet before the industry decides to take this seriously, and it is entirely possible that a terrorist group or state actor will use this weakness. I agree it's an issue that should be worked on, but I think it's much more likely (as a parent pointed out) someone will simply fly a drone into the airspace. After all, bird strike incidents are a major cause of crashes: >The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) estimates bird strikes cost US aviation 400 million dollars annually and have resulted in over 200 worldwide deaths since 1988.[56] In the United Kingdom, the Central Science Laboratory estimates[8] that worldwide, the cost of birdstrikes to airlines is around US$1.2 billion annually. This cost includes direct repair cost and lost revenue opportunities while the damaged aircraft is out of service. Estimating that 80% of bird strikes are unreported, there were 4,300 bird strikes listed by the United States Air Force and 5,900 by US civil aircraft in 2003. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bird_strike https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bird_strike

bdamm 7y ago
Birds do most of the work to avoid bird strikes, and are avoiding airplanes daily. The same can't be said for terrorists.