New technology can automatically land small planes when pilot loses consciousness

Zackary Rogers, Contributor

New technology could give pilots and passengers the option of hitting what is basically a panic button, to automatically land an aircraft. It’s an emergency autoland feature if something were to happen to a pilot and the button was pushed, it would get the plane safely to the nearest airport and land on the ground. While crashes due to pilot unconsciousness are mostly rare, they’ve killed at least 269 people in the U.S. in the last 10 years. The new Autoland system is designed to self-activate when there been a long period of time where there is no pilot activity. Once Autoland is activated, the plane then picks the closest airport where it can safely land, factoring in weather, terrain, and the amount of fuel onboard. It then radios the tower declaring an emergency landing and updates passengers on the approaching landing. The Autoland system can control all the flight’s functions, but the pilot can override the technology at any point. It’s going to be available first in certain new Piper airplanes and it will expand to other new aircraft. The hope is that in the near future it will be able to be added to existing aircraft as well. This could save countless lives and bring a new future to air travel.

 

Featured Image: Google

Article Image: Google

Information From: CBS News