October 25th will mark the tragedy of a plane crash that contextually spanned the generations in disturbing fashion. It was a lesson on a multitude of levels for humanity.
PGA golf legend Payne Stewart, passengers and crew perished as the Learjet that they were contained in became fatefully derelict as the aircraft lost cabin pressure at a cruising altitude of over seven miles in the high jetways. Scrambled Airforce jets dispatched to examine the situation discovered in horror that all souls onboard were incapacitated as doom was inevitable. The plane eventually ran out of fuel and plummeted in a rural South Dakota field.
Twenty seven years into the future and wounds unyielding, the onset of technology applied to the friendly skies has still not solved the question of “what if?”, or “if not, when?” in the application of redundant systems preventing travesties literally from the ground up. As commonsense engineers exercising critical thinking skills and expertise have designed framework that could prevent deaths, the idea and reality of less is more remains applicable to keeping things simple and concise in not caving into the proclivity of implementing infrastructure that convolutes rather than providing benefits pertaining to the improvement of pilot and passenger safety.
As the pair of aviation industry leaders continue to explore effective methods of remote control functions overtaking the flying mechanisms, the benefits cannot account or justify for the rewards amid the digital confines of an era where access is encouraged and exploitation transcends security in the ecosystem of complexity and peremptory inclinations.
In the wake of the transgressions involving the Malaysian Airlines crash of a 737-max that suffered the fate of overengineering combined with inadequate pilot training, the model was identified for what not to do in operating commercial flying operations. However, in the absence of accountability, public safety remains a concern as the debate between interfacing technology with the practical remains and fuels an ongoing challenge as the back-up matrix of highly integrated next-gen hardware and software trend towards the possibility of lost autonomy and the decision making and the manual checklists of pilots at stake. To be human.
With the high stakes game of remote controls possibly being integrated and providing the ability to remotely fly an aircraft based on circumstance, the future is now as a prelude to procedural chaos based on opportunities and whatever side a group or individual represents.
