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Comment by _Adam | Hacker News Reader

> ... reaches up and flips the pressurization switch, cutting off bleed air to the cabin. The airplane rapidly begins to depressurize ...

I cannot believe that a "kill everyone" switch actually exists, and if it really does this seems like a bug. Especially because not hitting the switch would also kill everyone.

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Being able to rapidly depressurize is fairly critical; the doors are prevented from opening in flight by a pressure differential and their construction. In an emergency, being unable to depressurize would mean being unable to evacuate the aircraft.

Passengers would've had their oxygen masks deploy, which works in normal circumstances, but they only last 12 minutes; intended to give the crew time to descend. When the pilot has no intention of taking that measure, you're screwed pretty fast, but they could fly into a mountain too if they felt like it.

> but they could fly into a mountain too if they felt like it

Don't know if you said that with this crash in mind or not, but: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germanwings_Flight_9525

Yes.

Fundamentally, if the pilot of an airliner wants to crash, they will be able to crash.

With very rare exceptions: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornfield_Bomber

There's a lot of automation around commercial air travel, so autonomous commercial flying is an easier problem than city driving. The argument against it tends to be that you need a human behind the stick in cases like the miracle on the Hudson. The other side of this is it's about as likely a pilot intentionally crashes the plane.

In an evacuation event, the aircraft would be at sea level and the interior would not be pressurized relative to outside air. You only need to depressurize if you're going to parachute out, which... is not an option in commercial aviation.

Unless you, say, make an emergency landing somewhere like Denver or La Paz.

Aircraft are pressurized to 8k feet above sea level. Denver is only 5k. La Paz, specifically, sure. It’s a lot less broadly useful than your original language made it sound.

Pressurization is relative, aircraft can end up pressurized on the ground. Next time you fly, note the warning beacons in the windows of all the doors. They indicate the cabin is pressurized alerting rescue crews that attempting to open said door will either A: not work or B: kill them, as has happened before with a G150 [1]

Also, there are other situations where you may be inclined to disable bleed air, such as in a fume event where an engine is releasing turbine oil into the bleed air stream due to a mechanical failure or fire.

[1] https://www.flightglobal.com/g150s-pressurised-door-fatally-...

> Pressurization is relative

I mean, that's literally what I wrote.

DB Cooper would beg to differ: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/D._B._Cooper

They specifically fixed that problem after his escapade.

Your assumption is that it's a "kill everyone" button.

Yes, used incorrectly or maliciously, in the right circumstances, it can do so.

By the same reasoning, a huge percentage of the controls and switches in the cockpit can also have the same result.

Just disconnect the fuel to the engines, or push the control stick forward.

I feel like the need for qualified pilots is essentially that it’d be easier to identify what isn’t effectively a “kill everyone” button in the cockpit if used in the wrong way.

It’s a fricken giant metal tube flying through the air!

Slightly related: a family friend who was a pilot once told us that the security at an UK airport once very thoroughly inspected him before his flight. Puzzled, he asked: what are you looking for? Because I have a literal axe in the cockpit - and I can also crash the plane. How could I possibly be carrying more dangerous stuff? The security people didn't like it.

Terrorist’s long game I guess … just become the damn pilot.

It's also worth keeping the secure area of the airport secure. The pilot can be negligent and have weapons stolen from him, or left behind by accident. He can also accidentally bring weapons into the airport he didn't intend to.

Are you also astounded that the pilot controls the plane with a "kill everyone" lever? One that if they push forward for long enough will kill everyone on the plane?

But also, _not_ using the lever during landing would also kill everyone. Wild stuff.

Wait until you hear about this thing called a yoke.

The pilots can kill everyone in a many different ways. It's basically impossible to get around that.

There's many "kill everyone" switches in most vehicles; this is why people get training and screening before being allowed to operate one. It's not foolproof, but there is no such thing as foolproof transport.

When in the right (/ wrong) hands many of the buttons and controls on an airliners can become "kill everyone" switches.

This switch, just like all others, has very legitimate use cases.

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