[Jcampuzano2]

I would hope that the button would not be responsive if the plane is literally midflight, or have some failsafes to prevent exactly this kind of situation.

Obviously I'm not a pilot but I can't imagine many scenarios where a commercial flight would want to actively shutdown the engines with just a simple command while midair. But I'm willing to be corrected if thats not the case.

[pdonis]

> I can't imagine many scenarios where a commercial flight would want to actively shutdown the engines with just a simple command while midair.

The scenario has already been mentioned elsewhere in this thread: an engine fire. If the engine is actually on fire, you want the flight crew to shut it down as quickly as possible, because the plane could be seconds away from a jet fuel explosion.

[wongarsu]

The engine shutdown is there in case of engine fires. Gliding without engine power is a bad situation, but being on fire is worse.

And usually it's just one engine that's malfunctioning, so you shut that one down and fly to the nearest airport on the remaining engine.