Remote Control Of The Airplanes Was Possible On 9/11

Autopilot could land hijacked planes

https://web.archive.org/web/20050216....ns/?id=dn1280

11:15 12 September 2001
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Catherine Zandonella, San Francisco

Aeroplane hijackings could be halted in progress with existing technologies, say aviation researchers, but the attempt would be risky.

"Most modern aircraft have some form of autopilot that could be re-programmed to ignore commands from a hijacker and instead take direction from the ground," says Jeff Gosling of the Institute of Transportation Studies at the University of California, Berkeley.

If a hijacking were detected in progress, being able to control a plane from the ground would be crucial, says Gosling. "The only other thing you could do is shoot the target down."

Autopilot, the system that maintains altitude, speed, and direction during flight, is fully capable of landing a plane without help from the pilot, says aviation engineering researcher Dale Oderman at Purdue University in Lafayette, Indiana. "We are already capable of flying unmanned military spy planes, so it is not far off to think that a remote system could land a commercial passenger jet."

Hijacking the fail-safe
However, Jeffrey Speyer, an aerospace engineer at the University of California, Los Angeles has qualms about the idea of remote control, saying that system could be a terrorist target itself.

He is devising a control system that would allow planes to fly close together in bird-like flocks. He says it could be adapted to override a hijacker's instructions, but "the system might be tampered with by the very people who you don't want taking over the plane."

The US Federal Aviation Administration experimented with remote landing of a commercial jet during the 1980's, says spokesperson Holly Baker at the FAA's William J. Hughes Technical Centre in Atlantic City, New Jersey. However it has not been an active topic of research in recent years.

Cockpit monitor
Detecting a hijacking is another area in which new technologies could play a role. Currently, if the pilot cannot use the radio to call for help, he or she can flip a switch to emit a distress signal that can be picked up by radar, says Oderman. The FAA could not confirm whether any distress signals were heard prior to Tuesday's attacks.

Numerous new technologies could call for help even if the pilot and crew were incapacitated. On board computers could detect when the plane has veered off course and then radio for help. Or, video cameras and voice recognition systems in the cockpit could alert ground-based crews, says Lewis Mingori, chairman of the mechanical and aerospace engineering department at the University of California, Los Angeles.

In future, researchers could deploy thousands of miniature networked sensors, or MEMS (microelectromechanical systems), to detect odd behaviour in the cockpit, says UC Berkeley computer scientist David Culler.

Security solution
To date, most of the FAA's research has been centred on preventing hijackings through increased airport security, says FAA's Baker. But advanced systems, like InVision Technologies' computerised tomography scan for explosives, are only now being adopted due to high costs.

In the case of Tuesday's attacks, it is difficult to predict how government agencies will respond in terms of air security, says Gary Ackerman, a terrorism expert at the Monterey Institute for International Studies.

"Until we know how they got around existing security measures, it will be difficult foresee how to strengthen them," he says.

Watching You

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"Robert Ayling, a former boss of British Airways, suggested in the Financial Times this week that aircraft could be commandeered from the ground and controlled remotely in the event of a hijack."

The Boeing 757-200

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Flight Deck

The 757-200 flight deck, designed for two-crew member operation, pioneered the use of digital electronics and advanced displays.

• A fully integrated flight management computer system (FMCS) provides for automatic guidance and control of the 757-200 from immediately after takeoff to final approach and landing.
• The precision of global positioning satellite (GPS) system navigation, automated air traffic control functions, and advanced guidance and communications features are now available as part of the new Future Air Navigation System (FANS) flight management computer.
• The captain and the first officer each have a pair of electronic displays for primary flight instrumentation.
• The engine indicating and crew alerting system, often called EICAS, monitors and displays engine performance and airplane system status before takeoff. It also provides caution and warning alerts to the flight crew if necessary. EICAS monitoring also aids ground crews by providing maintenance information.

The 757-200 is available with a wind shear detection system that alerts flight crews and provides flight-path guidance to cope with it.

Flight decks of the 757 and 767 are nearly identical and both aircraft have a common type-rating. Pilots qualified to fly one of the aircraft also can fly the other with only minimal additional familiarization.

Built-in test equipment helps ground crews troubleshoot avionics and airplane systems quickly for easier maintenance than on earlier aircraft.