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by bigDinosaur 1240 days ago
If the pilots want to kill you, all they have to do is fly into the ground, and there's absolutely nothing you can do to stop them and nothing short of complete automation could ever remove that risk. I can't think of scenarios where the pilots would particularly want to survive after murdering all their passengers.
1 comments
mariuolo 1240 days ago
With https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethiopian_Airlines_Flight_702 when the co-pilot hijacked the plane to ask for political asylum in Switzerland, I remember news coverage reporting that he had threatened the passengers to cut off the air supply if they didn't remain seated.

Must have been quite distressing.

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apexalpha 1240 days ago
This just reinforces the argument that the pilot is in control, and he can do as he likes. Fly normally, change course, kill everyone... When you step into a plane you put your life in the hands of a pilot.
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Ajedi32 1240 days ago
It would be pretty easy to remove "kill everyone except me" as one of those options, if we thought it was worth it (which again, it probably isn't). Just mandate that an override switch for the life support systems be accessible in the passenger compartment.
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mariuolo 1240 days ago
> It would be pretty easy to remove "kill everyone except me" as one of those options, if we thought it was worth it (which again, it probably isn't).

The idea is to keep everyone except the pilot alive but unconscious until things improve. I think it's preferable to everyone unconscious and eventually dead.

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Ajedi32 1240 days ago
Uh... what? Whose idea, exactly? Because that's an absolutely terrible idea. Altitude-induced hypoxia isn't like some kind of controlled medical anesthesia. If all the passengers fall unconscious from it then it's neigh certain that at least some of them are going to die. That's why commercial airplanes have emergency oxygen masks for passengers, not just the pilot.

If both passengers and the pilot aren't being supplied with enough oxygen to remain conscious 100% of the time, then something has gone horribly wrong. If the reason passengers aren't being supplied with enough oxygen to remain conscious is because the pilot cut off their air supply intentionally, then that's even worse. (Though again, thankfully that situation seems to be extremely rare.)

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