US tests video system to spy on jet hijacks

Electronic Telegraph ^ | 22/01/2004 | Michael Smith

[aculeus]

A British system that will allow officials on the ground to receive continuous video in the event of an airline hijack is being tested in the US.

Air crew or air marshals would have devices hidden in their pockets to switch the system on at the first sign of trouble.

Continuous video would then be automatically fed via satellite to security forces who could monitor the situation inside the aircraft.

Cameras controlled remotely from the ground could be concealed or visible.

The project, being tested by the US Department of Homeland Security, is only possible as a result of a British scientific breakthrough already tested by US special forces in Iraq.

Video from unmanned aerial vehicles was sent via satellite to the Pentagon and the information was used for intelligence or to attack targets. The system has been hailed as the way forward for warfare.

Essential Viewing, a Glasgow company, has developed the technology that allows the compression and transmission of continuous video from up to four cameras on board an airliner.

"The Department of Homeland Security was keen to see if the equipment we provided to US special forces could also be used to help safeguard civilian airline passengers," said Simon Hardy, the chief executive of Essential Viewing.

"Our video system would also allow ground-based security staff to advise the aircrew on how to react to a suspicious event and possibly avoid an incident altogether."

[Prodigal Son]

So now we'll get images of the passengers beating the sh!t out of the bad guys.

[Bobby777]

I don't mean for this to sound bad ... so please excuse if it doesn't sound right but I hope it comes across ...

I wish they could have saved Flight 93 (as all Americans do) or any or all of the others ... then Americans would have been able to see just what went on inside those cockpits and passenger sections and heard and *seen* more first-person testimonies ...

As bad as it was, and it *was bad*, there was never the visual evidence to show the world the brutality committed on those planes ... we saw the end result of it, and that was sickening enough ...

[q_an_a]

the imagination is still the most powerful tool known to man. Picture can cause people to think, I could do that and then make it seem trival. I do not disagree about wanting to see or it's value, but I fear that the worst stuff would be edited out and all we would see is a mob rush of a door.