TAG!
Reason number 216 why it’s been almost 20 years since I flew in a commercial plane. Don’t get me started on TSA goons.
I was doing some work for the FAA right after 9/11. One idea that was talked about was a ground-operated system to take control of an airliner. If a 747 started to descend in the direction of — you know: Manhattan — the authorities could take over from the pilot and send the plane to a safer destination.
It was rejected as “too expensive”. And now, here we are, worried that some guy with a laptop might be able to do it.
From a security standpoint, I think that if an authorized system were in place to allow “the right people” to take control, it would be be very much part of that system to ensure that “the wrong people” could not. This is not a hard thing. It’s like the nuclear football. Taking control is impossible — unless the President releases the special code. Only then can the control be given to people on the ground.
But we don’t specialize in homeland security or anything. It’s expensive.
Reminds me of the first episode in May of 2001 of the “X-Files” spinoff, “The Lone Gunmen” where a DC-9’s/MD-80’s control computer was hacked and the plane was flown to New York. The target, the World Trade Center.
I often said that if I hit the powerball for a boatload of money, if I ever started an airline, I would only use old piston engined aircraft like the DC4 thru 7 and the Super Constellation. My father flew aboard the old Super Connies and he told me they were far more comfortable and luxurious than the planes of today. Come to think of it, he flew on one of the first C-130’s when he was in Korea (1956)
Why the f2ck would they put critical systems on the same stuff passengers use? Security. Jeeeeebus crisp.
Thank You Captain Obvious!