Jurors clear jet in Payne Stewart crash

AP ^ | 6/8/5

[prion]

flying halfway across the country on autopilot

Spooky!

[willgolfforfood]

A sad tragedy for all the families. And I still miss watching Payne swing a club. His golf swing was almost poetic...

[Larry Lucido]

So, the jet wasn't convicted?

[rickmichaels]

[Nowhere Man]

This reminds me a little bit of the incident where a Soviet (or Warsaw Pact) pilot got into trouble in his MiG-23 and had to bail out somewhere over Poland. I think the jet continued on autopilot for 600 miles and it ended up crashing in Belgium somewhere when it ran out of fuel.

[Enterprise]

The jurors felt that the jet acted reasonably and with good faith.

[mdittmar]

Very sad,Payne had turned his "attitude" around,I miss seeing him in tournaments.

[ErnBatavia]

Yeah! I know an American Airlines captain who does cross country runs. I asked him how much of the trip is on autopilot, and I don't recall his specifics, but they pretty much click it on just after takeoff and shut it off on final approach.

[SmithL]

I still remember hearing about this as it was happening. It WAS spooky. They knew something was wrong almost immediately, and they basically escorted the jet for it's entire trip.

[cripplecreek]

My pilot friend says the auto pilot is to leave both hands "Free fer drinkin". (he's joking)

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

but they pretty much click it on just after takeoff and shut it off on final approach.

Especially on a 747. Damn thing pretty much flies itself after the computer is programmed with flight plan particulars.

[norraad]

..interesting angle .,

..if autopilots can fly you that far they should be good enough now to bring you down safe if this happens( & broadcast an alert).

Hello, we are in the future now!

[Diligent]

If the pressure drop was sudden, they would've gone to oxygen. If it was gradual, would there be any audible indication in the cockpit to warn them? Could they have left the cockpit and then slowly lapsed into unconsciousness back with the rest of the passengers?

Eerie.

[rickmichaels]

...if autopilots can fly you that far they should be good enough now to bring you down safe...

But if the (computer) chips are down, then what?

[Xenophobic Alien]

I used to fly "jump seat" with Alsaka air all the time and you are correct. Except take offs and landings 90% of the time is spent on autopilot.

[isom35]

good thing that jet was not an SUV.

[Enterprise]

As you already know, the technology exists to have planes takeoff and land automatically. I don't see this being routine in the near future though, because of the need to have a human being present to make decisions when something goes wrong.

[norraad]

....like on-star?

[daviddennis]

Didn't Sunjet have insurance that would have covered this kind of thing?

D