New technology recommends ground control to avoid pilot-caused disasters

It has been revealed that technology that might have averted the German-wings tragedy by remotely seizing control of the plane has existed but has been ignored and resisted by the aviation industry globally. Support for real-time monitoring of jets from the ground has stalled amid airline fears of the dangers of eliminating pilots and the possibilities of a so-called cyber-hijack by terrorists. Unions representing pilots are also against the move. The 9/11 attacks on the US, in which terrorists used hijacked aircraft as weapons, sparked calls for new systems to prevent a repeat of the atrocity. Philip Baum, editor of Aviation Security International, said the tragedy was partly due to 'knee-jerk' controls introduced after 9/11. He said: 'The ill-thought reinforced cockpit door has had catastrophic consequences'. Baum said thinking about airline safety had been skewed by the 2001 terror attacks, adding that there had been 'excessive attention given to terrorism' and a 'failure to address other threats to aviation security'. Manufacturers in Europe and America have worked on ways of creating a 'hijack-proof' aircraft. In 2006, Boeing was awarded a US patent for an 'uninterruptible autopilot system'. This would allow pilots, ground controllers or security agencies such as the CIA to activate an automatic flight mode that cannot be turned off by anyone on board. The system could also switch itself on if terrorists tried to fight their way into the cockpit, with pressure sensors on the door responding to excessive force. The aircraft's flight path could be radioed to it by ground control, and it would be brought safely down at a nearby airport using existing automatic landing aids. Sources at Boeing claimed at the time that the anti-hijack equipment could be fitted to planes all over the world by 2010. But this has failed to happen amid safety concerns from pilots and airlines, and the technology remains unproven. The ability to direct pilotless aircraft from the ground is well established; military drones have long been used for surveillance and targeted missile attacks. In 2013, a 16-seater Jetstream airliner became the first passenger plane to fly 'unmanned' across UK civilian airspace.