Page 12 - Flight Management Computer News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Went on for seven hours. my question to you, could a automatic pilot procedure keep a plane flying on a straight line for seven hours without anybody alive on the plane? a zombie flight, if you will. could that happen? >> is it possible? absolutely, yes. no question. >> so there is no dead man switch like in railroads. if you're dead, the plane keeps flying? >> if the entire crew is incapacitated, the autopilot is engaged and the flight management computer has a path or route to fly, it will fly that. if it doesn't, if it hits what is known as a discontinuity, it will fly a heading and continu...

Bullet and a warning to operators that hacking could occur onboard, but it, you know, it would at worst be limited to something like the flight management computer, which ultimately can be overridden by the pilot. if a flight crew sees the plane is doing something completely out of the ordinary, then they would just take over the aircraft. >> right. and it's almost -- when i hear about it, to some degree, the discussion or interest in hacking or one sort of silver bullet explanation go to part of the human psychology of this, which is people want a reason. if there's some simple or external re...

Valuable information, valuable clues may be lost indefinitely here? >> well, time is always your enemy in investigations like this and this is an extraordinary amount of time without really many solid facts. lots of conjecture, a few small notions with respect to why the plane or how the plane diverted from its flight path. incidentally, it's not uncommon to put a divert flight path program in the flight management computer because, as was said, if you do experience an emergency, you just execute that divert and you go to your nearest suitable airfield and that's a very common procedure. >> an...

Consulting firm. so good to have you on the show this morning. >> good morning. let me make one correction. i have never worked for the national transportation safety board. i've worked with them but i have never been an employee of the ntsb. >> thank you. >> listen. >> i'm sorry. >> we always try to puff up our guests. >> we try to it two or three times before we get it right. >> i've seen pilots operate. you should have seen me. i was inverted and going so we are just trying to, you know, get into the spirit of things. so what is your best theory based on all of your knowledge? what happened...

Immarsat and this is high quality. >> i have an admonition not to speculate, but we're left with very little information, captain cox, and that is that the flight went on for seven hours. my question to you, could a automatic pilot procedure keep a plane flying on a straight line for seven hours without anybody alive on the plane? a zombie flight, if you will. could that happen? >> is it possible? absolutely, yes. no question. >> so there is no dead man switch like in railroads. if you're dead, the plane keeps flying? >> if the entire crew is incapacitated, the auto pilot is engaged and the fl...