February 28, 2019
With the continual advancement of aviation technology, many have considered removing human factors of flights to be safer and efficient. With automation becoming more precise and reliable than human itself, ideas such as automation should replace actual pilots in the future are being revealed. An editor-in-chief of the Royal Aeronautical Society’s magazine Aerospace, Tim Robinson have said, “computers fly ultra-precise, repeatable trajectories, do not fly drunk, do not get tired, do not get distracted and so the thinking goes could be safer than human pilots in the future” (Moskvitch). Regardless of how advanced technology may be, malfunctions can still occur. Even the aircraft itself have technologies which can have multiple malfunctions requiring actions for recovery from the pilots themselves. Wouldn’t a human pilot be necessary in case the computer controlling the aircraft malfunctioned?
Since “most aviation accidents are cause by pilot failures, not aircraft failures,” 100% autopilot is becoming more desirable to reduce human error in flights (Anderson). However, it is undeniable that the “human pilot is required and is the fail safe for any failures by the aircraft itself” (Anderson). With the current technology, most malfunctions automatically disengage the autopilot for the human pilot to take charge, identify, and find a solution to the issue the computer has encountered. Modern flight computers are smart enough to the point of pilots are “relying on autopilots for 95% of today’s flights” (Moskvitch).
For sure, the benefits of fully automated flights outnumber the benefits of having human pilots on board. But the only factor and concern automation cannot fully relieve is safety. Technology can still fail, and even have “the risk of… getting hacked” (Moskvitch). Nonetheless, no matter how convenient and beneficial pilotless flights can be, it is safer to leave the last resort of safety to humans. Because once the automation fails, and it fails to control the flight controls of the aircraft, a fatal crash is more likely to happen rather than a survivable crash performed by a human pilot.
Anderson, Richard. Guest Blog: The Uncrashable Airplane is Within Reach. 31 March 2105. https://www.avweb.com/blogs/insider/Guest-Blog-The-Uncrashable-Airplane-is-Within-Reach-223775-1.html. 27 February 2019.
Moskvitch, Katia. Would you fly in a pilotless airliner? 13 September 2016. http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20160912-would-you-fly-in-a-pilotless-airliner. 2019 February 27.