During the last 100 years, the aviation industry has changed the way we see the world and transformed lives of the inhabitants of this planet. The advancements in the aviation sector helped bring people together and made the world look smaller.
The last century witnessed aircraft that can travel faster than the speed of sound transporting hundreds of passengers from one continent to the other within a matter of few hours.
There are airplanes that can be used as hospitals and some have fitted with equipment that can wipe out cities from the face of the earth. The ease and comfort of air travel makes traveling an enjoyable experience.
When air travel started decades ago, it remained exclusive to the elite. Over time, however, as we all know things changed. Today, some airlines operate hundreds of flights on a daily basis and there are various airports across the world capable of handling tens of millions every year.
Despite the technological advancements, the world saw many air disasters resulting in the deaths of thousands of people in the blink of an eye. Most of these disasters occurred due to bad weather, human error, technical malfunction, mid-air collision or simply put out of sheer bad luck. Air disasters were and still are a fact of life in the aviation industry.
Until today, people considered air travel safest mode of travel. It was just takeoff and landing that scared people. But all the recent major disasters occurred in mid-air.
Observers may recall the Air France flight that simply disappeared from the radar. Memories of 2014 air accidents involving Malaysian Airline are still fresh in the minds of the people.
We all know that there are very advanced satellite imaging systems, listening devices and advanced radars. It is true that there are limitations to any technology, but there must be a way to better track an aircraft.
The recent air disasters occurred in Southeast Asia. The latest is AirAsia QZ 8501 but there is no mystery in this disaster. Just before it vanished, the pilot was in contact with air controllers and it was clear that the plane was experiencing severe turbulence and the pilot requested to go to higher altitude, but the accident involving other Malaysian plane (MH370) remains shrouded in mystery. It will continue to remain a mystery forever, unless something comes up or the debris of the plane were found. Perhaps more flying hours or improper maintenance is causing metal fatigue in the airframes resulting into catastrophes. This is not exclusive to a particular airline.
With the increase in the number of passengers, we saw a hike in the number of airlines. And with it came a high demand of skilled pilots and airlines began competing with each other to attract experienced pilots. Still, there is a shortage of pilots, which means that many pilots are overworked. In other words, the aviation industry had changed from the good old days.
At this stage, the two main aircraft manufacturers, Boeing and Airbus, should think of changing the concept of relying solely on the Black Box. They should try to install a device in the cockpit with a camera that records and shows the last five minutes, which can be used with voice recorder and information retrieved from the Black Box.
Many people in the industry say the camera in the cockpit tantamount to an invasion of the aviator’s privacy but please give us a break. We are talking about people’s lives here.
