China Air Crash

@markansas Unless the pilot turned off the auto pilot and flew the plane into the ground.

@jackson55 think if the auto pilot thinks it flying in the right way and the gps was changed remotely to think it was flying level however it was flying down instead. a good hacker could do that. and the pilot might not have time to take the auto pilot off before it hit. its all numbers to the autopilot and not up or down .just my thought. the black box might tell us the story tho. and i would like to know as would you.

@markansas
Possibly in the movies, but not in real life.

This is proprietary to the industry, but I don't think auto-pilot system, are connected to the outside world, and all commands must be issues local to the cockpit.

The auto-pilot and all safety systems can be shut off, but obviously this takes a deliberate act by the pilot. The plane itself, with its tipped wing design, means its design will create left on its own, as speed increases, so the pilot will have compensate using the wing flaps and aileron flaps.

The video is clear, it's flying straight down, with almost no curve, at a 0g-inducing speed.

There have been multiple cases of suicide by pilot over the years. Once in Japan, where the pilot and most passengers survived.

There was a case once of a JAL pilot, who missed the SFO runway, and landed partially in the SF Bay. The pilot committed suicide the next day, by jumping off a St. Francis hotel balcony.

@Northwest now a days you can never tell. and i hope you are right to be fair suicide would be better than someone able to hack any flight mid air and nose dive it to the ground. that is me being paranoid i guess. some times my paranoid goes too far and some times it has saved my bacon. either way this was bad . mark

@markansas Boeing (and Honeywell and Airbus), developed software that allows a remote crew to take control of flight systems, and no one onboard can interrupt.

This, however has not been installed in any airplanes, and certainly not the 737-800.

@Northwest thank you for the help. all info is good info even if it is bad . we need to keep up with the times on what is happening . and this helps.

@markansas It was a Boeing jet not a Airbus. The pilot can shut the automation off and fly the airplane. A Airbus is fly by wire. Possible, but not likely to be hacked.

@jackson55 Flight controls (rods, cables, pulleys, and chains that control flaps, winglets, aileron, etc), used to have mechanical controls, that provide physical feedback to pilots, allowing them to "feel" wind speed, angle of attack, turns, etc.

Similar to what might expect in a mechanical steering wheel in a race car.

Airbus introduced fly-by-wire, which replaced mechanical controls, and pads. Kind of like replacing the old mechanical computer mouse, with a pad, you move your fingers across.

Boeing followed suit, in 1994. Although I believe that Boeing retains mechanical backup systems, while the Airbus did not, but that changed following an Air France flight to Brazil, where the pilot and co-pilot did not realize they were working against each other.

Fly-by-wire, however, does NOT mean flying remotely. That's still not an option that's installed on any commercial airplanes. The "what if's" prevent that from happening.

@Northwest Boeing jets still have mechanical control. And can switch off the auto pilot and fly the airplane. A Airbus to some degree. With the auto pilot off the computer will control bank angle, pitch and yaw. No one knows for sure yet, but I belive the pilot flew the plane into the ground. As airspeed increases so does lift. The aircraft has some ability to correct pitch as airspeed increases. I believe the pilot had to keep the nose pointed down.

@jackson55


Yes, this is what I said.


All commercial jets have the option of switching the autopilot off.


Yes, when the autopilot is set to on (standard flight mode) and a specific altitude is entered.