In light of the Germanwings flight crash last month, the German aviation authority has urged the industry to create a technology that will allow air traffic controllers to override a pilot’s commands and take over the aircraft in emergency situations.
“We have to think
past today’s technology,” Klaus Dieter Scheurle, head of the
Deutsche Flugsicherung air traffic control authority said at a
press conference on Wednesday, as he urged the aviation industry
to develop a reliable remote control system for commercial
aircraft.
The idea emerges following the tragedy of Germanwings Flight 9525
on March 24, where co-pilot Andreas Lubitz locked himself in in
the cockpit and deliberately crashed the aircraft in the French
Alps, killing all 150 people onboard.
READ MORE: Hijack hack: Modern planes vulnerable
to remote midair takeover, says US govt watchdog
“Such an event might cause us to reconsider systems which
would allow the control of aircraft to be taken over by personnel
on the ground in emergency situations,” Scheurle said.
The idea is to allow air traffic controllers to take over an
aircraft and set it on a pre-programmed safe course for landing.
Although similar guidance systems are already used in piloting
drones, such technology is unlikely to be deployed in commercial
aircraft within the next decade, the aviation chief believes.
“There should be no ban on
thinking about how to handle a plane in an emergency when the
people on board cannot help,” Scheurle said.
“Such incidents may and will occur again, and we must think
about how to manage them so that nothing bad happens,” he
added without elaborating on what could prevent a person with bad
intentions to turn such a system off from inside the cabin.
German pilots’ union Vereinigung Cockpit has already argued
against the introduction of such system, saying only sitting
inside the cabin one can make a fully informed assessment of the
situation and make a decision.
“We also have to ask whether such a solution would really be
an improvement, after all it’s the pilots who are sitting in the
cockpit and they’re the ones with all the information,”
Vereinigung Cockpit spokesman Markus Wahl told Reuters.
Reminding of a new vulnerability risks such system would pose,
the British Airline Pilots’ Association (BALPA) also expressed
skepticism for the remote-controlled landing.
“We must act with careful consideration to ensure new safety
risks or concerns are not created, such as those raised by the
vulnerability of any form of remote control of a passenger
aircraft,” BALPA said in a statement.
Indeed, just this week the US Government Accountability Office
warned that modern commercial aircraft packed with electronics
are already vulnerable to sabotage through hacking, even without
such a full-fledged remote control system.
“Modern communications technologies, including IP
connectivity, are increasingly used in aircraft systems, creating
the possibility that unauthorized individuals might access and
compromise aircraft avionics systems,” GAO said in its
report, quoting cyber security and aviation experts.