Both pilots of an A320 fell asleep in the cockpit for 28 minutes

I think sweet spot is probably somewhere with adaptive cruise control and light lane assist. Too much beyond that and you have to be fully autonomous in all situations.

And this is basically what most other manufacturers’ driver assists do.

My wife’s car has adaptive cruise. It just needs to watch constantly and adjust your speed to ensure the distance between you and the car in front remains relatively constant.

It has lane keeping assist and lane departure alerting. It constantly tracks where the lines on the road are and either gently nudges you back in the lane, or beeps at you if you cross a line.

It has emergency braking, it’s constantly watching and if it sees you approaching something at a rate or distance that suggests you are likely to hit it, it will alert you. If you continue, it will apply the brakes for you.

If you’re stopped for a period of time (like at a light) and the car in front of you pulls away and you don’t after a brief moment, it will ding to get your attention and let you know traffic is moving.

Pretty much all of this is making use of the strengths of the computer (uninterrupted attention, quick reaction times) to make up for the weaknesses of the human (distractable, slower reaction times) instead of trying to do the reverse.

Perhaps you could interpret "100% attentive" as "at the same level of attentiveness as being without the current generation of 'self driving' technology"?

We passed an aircraft carrier going up the East Coast while they were doing exercises. They radioed us and made it clear not to come close to the ship. I have video of fighter jets doing low passes over our yacht every 15 minutes or so using us as a practice target. Going South once, as we came towards the inlet at Fernandina Beach on the Florida, Georgia line, a nuclear submarine was leaving port. I was at the helm in the afternoon while everyone else was sleeping. Good thing I was awake because we were met with the Coast Guard helicopter with a mounted machine gun pointed at me and a Coast Guard response (defender class) boat with a .50-caliber machine gun also fixed on me while they sat off our bow. I communicated with them on the radio; they said I should hold my position and not move. The sub came out with two large ships on each side with blast shields on the each ship.

> captain could be pass out drunk and still dock the 70 footer without issue Brings up memories… This was same with my father, he stopped drinking later but when I was a teenager and stuck somewhere after midnight I would call home and he would say “sure buddy” and come pick me up. On the way back his eyes were almost closed and sometimes we would joke about how the car knows about the roads and can go way back home itself. He is too old now and actually has a 12 meter boat which can’t dock himself alone.

This is the worst of both worlds, I would (and do) rather just drive “manually”

I cannot deny that your comment couldn't have failed more to displease me. Cheers,

Ok, thanks for the updated info, maybe it changed, it was over 10 years ago

Or alert air traffic control, and maybe they can send an alert into the cockpit. But there must be a way to raise an alarm.

My guess is basically nobody cares that much about this rare condition. It's much more likely the pilots are incapacitated rather than asleep, in which case the alarm is pointless.

But I guess it's not that rare:

  - https://www.newsweek.com/pilots-boeing-737-both-doze-off-overshoot-airport-two-hour-flight-1735435
  - https://jalopnik.com/tale-of-both-pilots-sleeping-during-flight-reminds-us-t-1849014190
  - https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/pilots-sleep-cockpit-airline-safety/index.html
  - https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-24296544
  - https://www.cbsnews.com/news/both-pilots-fall-asleep-during-british-airbus-flight-incident-report-reveals/
  - https://www.aero-news.net/index.cfm?do=main.textpost&id=A9AAFE58-18F4-40B5-B59A-EBE316BBE878
  - https://content.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1932040,00.html

Autopilot and autoland have been around for a while, but they still need to be set up by the pilot, only operate under certain conditions, and autoland in particular only works at some airports. This is probably not a solution, not for quite a while at least.

A proper deadman's switch can't just be a button - you could weight it down, or just fall asleep on top of it. Trains commonly use a pedal you have to hold down halfway. Not sure this is really the best idea though, as pilots typically need both hands (and usually feet) free to actually, you know, control the plane.

That's not impossible, but the pilots' limbs are already largely "spoken for" by other controls and tasks, so it would be a harsh tradeoff.

Well... You can. Sleep deprivation is one hell of a drug. After ~23h on a plane without sleep, I slept through a fire alarm at a hotel. It's unlikely that both pilots and other staff would ignore it, but "no one can sleep to" threshold is not that low.

Sorry but this a bit ill-informed.

First off, you cannot just put an alarm on everything. The sonic experience inside a cockpit is very carefully designed to give pilots the correct information at the correct time. False alarms are not only not appreciated, they are actively dangerous. If a flight experiencing an emergency situation, a blaring alarm that is incorrectly going off can prevent pilots from getting timely information.

Airbus have side-sticks (like a game controller), not yokes and you really shouldn’t be inputting on them unless you’re hand flying for whatever reason.

In all two-pilot aircraft (all commercial jet aircraft), there are two separate roles that each one assumes: Pilot Monitoring (PM) and Pilot Flying (PF). The PM’s job is usually to run checklists, communicate/operate the radio, check various indicators, and support the PF to fly the aircraft. The captain and first officer swap between these roles en route. The PM should NOT be inputting controls unless there is a good reason to do so, but for safety/redundancy, one side’s controls are never disabled unless a lockout/override is active.

Most airlines have a policy to cruise with the autopilot on, which keeps the aircraft on its plotted course at it’s cleared altitude. The time where “flying” comes into play most often is during takeoff and using various levels of ILS from just indications of glide slope to a full autoland.

While not fantastic, a cruising airbus will keep its current course and stay airborne if the pilots snooze off.

That doesn't work at all. There are often times like takeoff, landing, dealing with adverse weather events, re-routing, mechanical failure, etc where they're going through a detailed checklist. The last thing you want is some random device that takes attention away from them dealing with a serious problem.

Do a barrel roll :)

> Maintain level flight but avoid terrain

Your other ideas are good. But this could kill people if it misfires and takes the plane off course and too far from an airfield.

>That’s true, but there are plenty of other options.

Well we can't settle it in the comments, nor should we. So which of those options can successfully survive a detailed engineering review on its merits?

I recall reading that certain aircraft manufacturers do offer more robust security features if the airlines are willing to pay for them. I don't have a link or source handy, but it's entirely possible that these features have been discussed, but through the lens of how much more would it cost to implement them.

There are fighter jets that will take over for an incapacitated pilot. I think it just goes to straight and level.

The existing action is to maintain current settings. A flight in Australia flew across the continent that way, after (theory says) somehow depressurizing during takeoff so everyone passed out.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2000_Australia_Beechcraft_King...

IMO that story shows that unless you do the remote control option (which I see as unlikely) it doesn't matter what happens...what can anyone outside the plane do except crash it earlier?

While not the exact same situation, it seems the response is to keep trying and to ask nearby planes to find them and get their attention. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=027yV9p7W5I

The two would have to fall asleep at the same time though. Otherwise, as soon as the SIC falls asleep, the third one would trigger some special protocol (like a kick in the tibia)

I'm not a pilot, but it seems like in some cases (depending on who sets the rules), it's allowed.

See this: https://flightsafety.org/asw-article/controlled-rest/

In many developed nations, this is a valid concern which is even more problematic given that developed nations have the wealth to afford to let people take parental leave.

If you are still hearing about population explosions with the same urgency that we heard about 20 years ago, then you’re being fed information meant to vilify the “others”.

They overshot the airport by about 40 minutes, which means they had to fly an extra 30 minutes back. Every minute the flight attendant delays in waking up the pilot is doubled.

That's not a huge deal in Vegas, but if you miss Honolulu that's a big problem.

And for taxiing hard part is likely not moving the plane, but not getting in a way of anyone else. You really don't want to be at wrong part of runway at wrong time.

So it’s even more uninformed than a normal armchair take?