This button would be located in the cockpit and would render the manual controls inoperable, on being pressed a signal would notify the authorities that the plane was being hijacked, it would then lock autopilot, the only way to manually control the plane from that point onward would be via external remote control by the authorities (who would have streamed telemetry data). This would work in much the same way as Banks have a lockout/silent alarm button in the event of a robbery. So long as pilots are trained to press this no matter what is being threatened. I know this idea cannot bring anyone back but it may go someway to prevent this form of terrorism occurring in future
I'd like to say that the recent events in New York and in Washington fill me with sadness at this inhuman and senseless waste of human life. The perpetrators are cowards guilty of crimes against humanity, no religion that I'm aware of can possibly justify this carnage in the name of their God (assuming it is religiously motivated, which I concede it probably is). I will not offer any prays as I'm agnostic, but you have my empathy as a humanitarian.-- solomungus, Sep 13 2001 Annotated here http://www.halfbake...jack-proof_20PlanesSee Skinny Rob's annotation [barnzenen, Sep 13 2001, last modified Oct 04 2004] Steve Kirsch's version http://www.skirsch....s/plane/disable.htm [jutta, Sep 13 2001] ok, I didn't look, I concede that Skinny Rob got there first, sheesh I can't even spell aeroplane properly...-- solomungus, Sep 13 2001 I am sure airplanes allready have a device like this. But for every Safety measure measure we install into buildings or vechcles we always have a way to disarm it. These were not just shot gun terrorists they had obviously fully studied the controls and cockpit of our aircraft. The safest way is not to reley on the machine for protection we should simply have more security officers on board each plane and make sure that they are fully trained on how to stop a hijacking situation. And actually perhaps rather than an electricle security device a physicall one might be more effective there should be a way the entire passenger cabine can be droped and parichuted to the ground even if the lane loses control.-- wood2coal, Sep 13 2001 Hmmm..wouldn`t have done much good.-- March Hare, Sep 13 2001 Don't the pilots have to remove the autopilot to *land* the plane?
Oh and what about... "Terrorists to tower. Turn off your autopilot or we start killing passengers. 5... 4... 3..."-- MrWrong, Sep 13 2001 not religious - they just probably use it as an excuse for their hate of America eg. pentagon=US military strength, trade centre=US economic power, white house=US political power or it may be that they could benefit from the economic turmoil created (i have no idea how)-- chud, Sep 13 2001 could be workable, but... would make terrorists angry. usually the big concern with hijacking is to keep terrorists from killing passengers, not keep them from flying into things. thiers tuesday was a *wry grin* relatively unique way of doing things... new and terrible.-- Urania, Sep 15 2001 i also thought of something like this. but if u say that plane can be controlled by external authorities even after pressing the button then the hijackers would force the authorities to do so. it should have some data from which it can find the nearest ally airport and make it land there after which it wont be able to fly for one week or so. and also after landing there would be tear gas or some other gas and after five mins or so dorrs and windows would open.-- shashankt, Aug 25 2003 So this is like sqawking 7500, and locking the controls?
Who has the authority to unlock the controls? Who are 'the authorities'?
What happens if the device is activated and communications are lost?
What if the plane is required to urgently deviate?
Sorry, good sentiment, but fishbone.-- FloridaManatee, Aug 25 2003 but you dont really need to be able to controll a plane to be able to do some damage with it eg if you were flying over a city,load the middle of the plaine up with explosives.boom, front half goes one way,back goes the other. way more effective than just hitting a building,imagine half a plane falling on a city from 5 thousand feet [?] **i am not a terrorist**-- andrew1, Apr 04 2005 How about installing a remotely detonatable charge in each aircraft, so that the "authorities" can destroy an aircraft that seems to have been hijacked with the possible intention of using it as a bomb?-- goldilox, Apr 07 2005 ... first plane to crash because the button was pressed by accident and the authorities didn't do well in steering it would get the system retracted.-- loonquawl, May 27 2009 random, halfbakery