Quote:
Originally Posted by cmdahler
Surprisingly enough, pilots in general aren't considered to be complete idiots. In fact, *gasp*, many actually do have actual degrees in various sciences and are in general fairly well educated folks. I know it's hard to fathom from that high perch up there, Kovid, but amazingly, this is precisely what the pilot of this flight actually did! Wow! Imagine that! A pilot, someone who is by the nature of their trade a fairly analytical individual, actually didn't leap to a totally asinine conclusion, formed a theory, and performed a test of the theory before arriving at the conclusion. Gee, the wonder of it all...
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Here's the thing... We are VERY bad at making risk assessments. Our brains are wired to deal with trees and grasslands, and ephemeral waves traveling at near-infinite speeds, personal movements at somewhat near the speed of sound, and chemical reactions that can level buildings.
To quote from Bruce Schneier
on security
Quote:
Originally Posted by cmdahler
Six years ago, Boeing received word that a laptop computer was suspected of shutting off the autopilot system on one of its jets during a commercial flight from London to Paris. The pilot conducted tests by turning the computer on and off, which the airline said again triggered the autopilot error. The airline "felt 100% confident that it was a particular laptop" causing the problem, says Bruce Donham, a senior electromagnetics engineer at Boeing.
Boeing sent engineers to Europe, purchased the laptop from the passenger, and tried unsuccessfully to re-create the problem from the same seat and during the exact time of the flight. Later, Boeing arranged to fly the empty plane on the London to Paris route, moving the laptop throughout the aircraft. No interference was discovered. The aircraft maker then brought the laptop back to Seattle and tested it in a Boeing lab. Donham says the tests showed no correspondence between electronic emissions from the laptop and the autopilot computer. |
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I'm trained as a scientist and work as a science teacher. If it is not reproducible, it doesn't matter how confident the airline feels.
But let us say it was the laptop, and it happened on this particular flight. What are the odds that it happens again?
Let us say that the US bans laptops on flights as a result of this data. How much money would be lost to productivity due to long flights where they could not use their laptops? How many fliers would switch from US airlines to foreign airlines where they can use their laptops? How many fliers would use their laptops and hide them when flight attendants come by?
You can worry about any threat. If you are really worried about threats, you can wrap yourself in steel and bubble wrap and only leave the house when nobody else is around. And even then, there are risks.
The question is how much effort we are willing to go to, in order to reduce risk, and how effective these efforts are.
Quote:
Originally Posted by HorridRedDog
Now that would be convincing to someone used to trial and error.
And what flight crew would want to stand before a judge and say "Well, I didn't think it would cause a problem the second time"?
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What flight crew will be standing in front of a judge if the problem were caused a second time? As has been pointed out, either it would not be a problem, or the flight crew would be dead.
Now, I will turn off my cell phone on flights. It serves no useful purpose while flying and it is not worth fighting the flight attendant, who is just doing his/her job anyway in order to keep it on (although to be honest, if I don't turn it off, nobody will notice unless it rings)
However, when I used to read on my cell phone, the one flight I took, I turned off the radio function and kept reading on it. If asked, I would have shown the flight attendant that I had done so, but kept reading unless an issue was made of it.
I never had an issue flying with my PDA on to read from, and although I rarely fly, I doubt that there will be an issue with my ebook reader, but in either case, if a flight attendent should be concerned, I will explain that there is no radio signal from them and ask politely if I can keep reading. I expect that there will be no problem if explained clearly, but will deal with it when it happens.
Of course, given how little I fly these days, it is not really a problem.