The fact that most remaining accidents are pilot related does not mean that eliminating pilots would reduce accidents. Pilots are an integral part of preventing accidents, they aren’t sacks of potatoes along for the ride.
You might as well say “left engines are responsible for half of all engine related malfunctions. Let’s get rid of all the left engines.”
Jerry, if memory serves, the crazy jumpseater on the FedEx plane pulled a breaker before he wielded the axe that he thought would have killed both pilots. That would, logically, have been the voice recorder breaker.
Speaking for myself, I could care less if there was a video camera in the cockpit, and for the entire aircraft. American Airlines has a thousand planes and equipping those would be very expensive. But for what benefit? The report today about the Air India crash states that the fuel valves were turned off after rotation then turned back on so a vudeo would not have helped here.
At which point the suicidal pilot would just hit the fire bottles, same effect.
Mandating CCTV camera’s and recorders in cockpits of aircraft that are already mandated to be equipped with CVR and FDR will require an act of congress. No FAA administrator know to man will ever hold this hot potato.
Even issuing a proposal for rule making (NPRM) which can be used as a trial balloon as it gathers stakeholder feedback, will require an act of God.
Pilot groups historically have vehemently opposed video recordings in the flight deck claiming they pose an opportunity for misuse including prosecution (we don’t trust you).
Chances are the NTSB recommendation to equip aircraft in 2000 will remain open for another 25 years. (I hope not).
Systems where CB’s are pulled should immediately alert on the EICAS (Engine Indicating and Crew Alerting System) in modern aircraft.
Current Embraer makes require the THROTTLE be idle before a cutoff switch can throw its signal.
Camera would not prevent this.
That logic of throttles, held forward could.
Will you now petition Boeing and Airbus to make that massive change?
I might argue that even WITH video there is a reasonable chance that we’d never know. I’ve been in airplanes deliberately equipped for video for the purpose of capturing data for certification (and later potentially product advertising) and it takes a lot of cameras to get a decent “picture” of everything that’s going on in the flight deck. To get the full detailed view of every control within reach or sight of a crew of two takes something close to ten cameras, unless we have them wear body cameras like police officers. Even then, it gets real hard to see if a pilot merely touched a button or actually pressed that button. On top of that, the storage space, even in the modern age, for ten cameras for 25 hours will be significant. Significantly more that the storage capacity of today’s crash survivable memory modules.
Captain Kirk is correct about mistrust of video in the cockpit. The Lexington Ky accident showed how during a civil lawsuit, a judge can order access to existing voice and data recordings from NTSB. ADS-B shows how the FAA is not limiting data for safety use only. Any video camera in the cockpit would just become another coat hangar. Congress would have to mandate no access to Judges in civil or criminal lawsuits and immunity to actions any video camera would record. Makes me glad that I am getting close to retirement from pt135 flying.
I’d like to wait for the full CVR transcript presented in the context of the full report. Preliminary reports by their nature paraphrase. One example of ill-definition at this phase, what language was the intracockpit talk?
…which, if the video coverage is sufficient, you’d see happen.
Maybe not, but the most interesting observation would be if no one touched them…
S’pose the price tag for this accident will be well in excess of $15 mil?
Topic cooks down to a few simple questions: Can a culpability be tagged on Boeing by some smart attorneys? Was a SAIB the appropriate measure to address the functionality of these switches in such close (and historically normal) proximity to the power levers? Was it reasonable to expect that nobody would ever move these switches during departure either by accident or on purpose?
The next question is how much money and effort it will take to avoid asking why a flying smart device had absolutely no sytems in place, to prevent this shutdown.
With most people obviously avoiding the reading-excursion into the preliminary accident report and barely skimming the actual reporting, its probably best to post more idiotic pictures on Facebook, make fun of it and hope Boeing doesn’t get pulled into it.
Both pilots had ample time on type, both transitioned to the 787 from Airbus. Both passed their breathalizer tests and rest times were reportedly adequate.
The flight progressed normally until the aircraft decided/ allowed the fuel cut to both engines during takeoff was reasonable.
The 787 will inhibit flap movement at the wrong speeds and deliver alerts when attempting to depart without flaps. But it will smile, nod and kill two engines during departure. I can’t even shut my I-Phone down without the damn phone asking if I may be cramping and may rather call emergency services.
Those left behind have every right to get answers to the question of who is ultimately responsible for this accident.
Even if one of the pilots decided to pull the plug on 260 people by extended suicide, the current system and level of scrutiny failed its purpose.
That’s exactly MY position Jason. An airplane that looks like THIS and there’s no automation in between those switches and the actual fuel shutoff function … I ain’t believing it. There’s more to this story.
Cameras will be a good addition : they will tell us what exactly happened. They will not stop bad things from happening. We need new passenger carrying airplanes to be fully automated and centrally managed, with just 1 pilot on board to assist when the automation or central control goes belly-up. If the military can fly their B737 sized drones over Afghanistan from a container in Arizona (or was that Nevada?), surely the technology is there. I am very disappointed in the prevailing attitude from pilots : when it comes to making a choice between their wallet and pax safety, they seem to opt for the $$$. Makes me feel like its not just Air India, Egyptair, Fedex and Germanwings that have an issue with pilot mental health.
Whether or not it makes sense to install cameras wasn’t the point of my post. My point is it’s easy to characterize a task as something simple and cheap when you’re not the one doing the work or paying for it.
Thank you for pointing out how nonsensical this would be from an operational point. Cameras would be a plethora of riches for the news networks. The ability to take video completely out of context and use it to scare the public, creating move viewership, would be priceless.
Imagine the opener. “Pilot lets flight attendant take over control of aircraft while pilots goes into passenger cabin to talk with passengers. They would then show the pilot and FA passing each other in the doorway. Of course, completely ignoring the other pilot at the controls. Don’t think that would happen? 2 recent examples.
Sure we’ll know. The preliminary report omitted almost all of the CVR transcript. At some point, the AIAA will have to come clean and reveal the entire cockpit audio transcript. The recorded nosies and pilot interchanges will tell the story.
Right now, they’re hiding and hoping that they can deflect blame from pilot error, or pilot evil.
Flaps don’t need to be “shut down” immediately to contain a fire or prevent a vibrating engine from disintegrating into an uncontained failure after a bird strike. Engines do. What do you want the engine shutdown system to look like? The requirement to input a code that calls dispatch asking for permission to move every switch on the aircraft?
You are basically advocating for pilots to be replaced by automated systems because pilots cannot be trusted to be competent or mentally healthy. Good luck with that.
Could there have been a 3rd person in the cockpit (jump seat)?
Thats some beautiful trolling… however inaccurate and misplaced it may be. 
I am advocating for simple verification measures on action items which can (and just did) have catastrophic consequences.