5 ms·
> American Airlines Capt. Michael Johnston died of a heart-attack mid-flight from Phoenix to Boston early Monday morning, his wife Betty Jean Johnston told NBC
by sashk 4y ago
> American Airlines Capt. Michael Johnston died of a heart-attack mid-flight from Phoenix to Boston early Monday morning, his wife Betty Jean Johnston told NBC News.
https://www.nbcnews.com/business/travel/american-airlines-captain-who-died-flight-idd-57-year-old-n439066 https://www.nbcnews.com/business/travel/american-airlines-ca...
So, if he was the only pilot in cockpit, everyone on the flight would have died too?
- switch007 4y agoA risk the airlines are willing to take ..
- spaceman_2020 4y agoThe stock price demands human sacrifice!
- paulpauper 4y agoPerhaps they meant somewhere else in the plane
- noeltock 4y agoCockpit is locked off?
- imoverclocked 4y ago… and where exactly would this second pilot be? The flight deck remains locked from the inside during flight post-9/11. There are a lot of concerns regarding two pilots, not just failure of one of the pilots but also mal-intent of a single pilot. Eg: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germanwings_Flight_9525 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germanwings_Flight_9525
- polar8 4y agoThe other pilot is working from home.
- defrost 4y agoFor the sake of the discussion this isn't an entirely ridiculous notion. Here in W.Australia Rio Tinto manage and remote co-pilot otherwise fully automated 100 tonne Haulpak dump trucks (that can easily run over and crush a car or pickup truck) from 1,000 km away. I'm fully in favour of a human pilot and a co-pilot (an advanced trainee even) for short haul flights that don't require shift work for the pilot (eg: long haul Australia -> Europe you'd want a pair of experienced pilots to tag team at least, + copilots and flight engineer) .. but there is an argument to made for emergency remote pilot capability. The argument against that, of course, is terrorists remote flying a hostage filled bomb.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- Retric 4y agoYea, I think remote backup drivers for self driving cars is fairly reasonable, but remote pilots just brings to mind thousands of passenger filled bombs.
- oceanplexian 4y agoAt least to start it’s pretty simple. Have a single physical pilot with the ability for a remote pilot to take over in the event of incapacitation, bathroom breaks, etc. The real pilot can always override the remote piloting system through some kind of physical disconnect.
- Retric 4y agoThat’s a different trade off in the case of a deranged pilot or hijackers. Similarly something easy to disconnect is likely to accidentally disconnect, while something difficult to disconnect might not be fast enough. A much larger issue is copilots do a significant amount of work especially in an emergency while also gaining experience in the aircraft. This means a steady stream of highly experienced senior pilots on the exact airframe being flown.
- vultour 4y agoThe cabin crew knows the code to open the door. The flight crew can block the request, but if no one in the cockpit is responding it will open.