FAA Says No More Minesweeper Or Solitaire In Cockpit 342
If you like to pass the time playing minesweeper, or checking your Facebook updates while piloting a 900,000-pound aircraft 400 mph, you won't like the latest FAA decision. The agency has asked airlines to create policies to minimize cockpit distractions, including pilots' use of personal electronic devices. "There is no room for distraction when your job is to get people safely to their destinations," said DOT Secretary Ray LaHood. "The traveling public expects professional pilots to focus on flying and on safety at all times."
They need something to do (Score:5, Insightful)
"focus on flying and on safety at all times" is staring at a big blue sky of nothing for hours on end. That will put anyone to sleep. Let them keep their minds doing something, who really cares what they do.
Who is surprised by this? (Score:2, Insightful)
With the ban on texting and cell phone use with out a handsfree device for public transportation and the trucking industry, who finds this surprising? I'm only surprised that this wasn't already banned.
Boredom (Score:5, Insightful)
Not a lot to do on many flights... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Boredom (Score:3, Insightful)
You are correct. The plane largely takes care of itself, except for emergency situations. These new rules will create a lot of very bored pilots.
We're already quite a step up from the days of porn magazines littering passenger aircraft cockpits. Now you can't even have digital porn either.
Re:Boredom (Score:5, Insightful)
Exactly. This idea is superficially appealing, but doesn't recognize the reality of what a lot of modern piloting is like. It reeks of being an overreaction to the recent -- but extremely rare -- incident of pilots being so caught up in a distraction that they overshot their destination. This was an isolated incident of irresponsible -- and PAIRED -- pilots, who turned off many of the countermeasures that are supposed to prevent such a disconnect.
I am not a pilot, but realistically, I would think that pilots need to keep their minds engaged, even if it's not something related to flying the aircraft itself. It seems more harmful to *force* them to be bored, increasing the probability of e.g. falling asleep or "zoning out".
I can't accept that this was a reasoned decision by intelligent, safety-oriented professionals, rather than a directive from politicians above.
Re:They need something to do (Score:5, Insightful)
Not only have autopilots worked incredibly well in the past, with a high success rate, but the idea is to keep Pilots awake by letting them exercise their mind while in flight.
Staring at the same blinky lights and widgets all day is going to be about the same as staring at the same blank blue sky.
A game of solitaire and Minesweeper shouldn't be that big an issue. Its like 10 minutes. If there was a catastrophic failure in that time there are systems in place to warn the pilots, like buzzers and alarms and warning sounds.
When was the last time we had an airliner NOT get people safely to its destination based solely on a Pilot being distracted?
Counter-intuitive results (Score:4, Insightful)
How many of us have been berated for doodling while listening to a lecture in class? It's something that's oft criticized, and yet recent evidence has shown that doodling helps us pay attention by managing boredom [time.com]. This counter-intuitive result makes it clear that what's really going on isn't always obvious.
I'm not going so far as to say that dickering on a netbook is a good idea when flying a commercial aircraft, but I will say that we should do some kind of study of the real effects of such "distractions" on real-world metrics like accident history, etc. We may well find that "distractions" result in better-qualified pilots remaining on the job rather than moving on elsewhere, and a subsequently reduced accident rate, even if individual pilot performance is somewhat reduced.
While phrases like "900,000 pound aircraft at 400 MPH" sound dramatic, the truth is that the aircraft are almost universally on auto-pilot, are flying somewhere above 30,000 feet, and are being monitored by RADAR at all times, so that any close calls cause planes to be diverted. And a "close call" is anything under 3 MILES of horizontal separation, and 1000 feet of vertical separation, so we aren't talking about a situation where you would even SEE the other aircraft without knowing exactly what direction to look for it.
Statistically speaking, it's safer to fly on a commercial airliner than it is to VISIT a family member in a hospital!
We could pay pilots more than fast food workers (Score:1, Insightful)
Seriously, most pilots start at a disgustingly low salary and stay there. There's a disproportionate amount of them that receive government assistance, such as food stamps. Starting at 17k/year in some companies, they make less than an assistant manager at Jack in the Box.
Yeah, I want that guy flying my aircraft even more depressed about his job.
Yea for deregulation!
Re:They need something to do (Score:3, Insightful)
I just want to see some form of proof that we need this law/rule/ban in any shape or form.
Before planes, let's start with a form of transportation that A) kills far more people than flying and B) has demonstrated clear and present dangers related to distration.
Please join me in banning ALL forms of distraction in your automobile, including talk radio, music, the bobble hula-girl you've got on your dash and, above all, naughty children.
Re:They need something to do (Score:5, Insightful)
Sometimes you regulate before people die.
In this case, the alarmingly distracted pilots last year who way overshot their destination point out how a distracted pilot could cause some serious problems -- up to and including death on a big scale.
As I recall, they couldn't even be hailed because they simply weren't paying attention -- " During that time, air traffic controllers and the airline's dispatchers made numerous efforts to contact the plane by radio and through text messaging devices." [cnn.com] If you're so distracted you can't be reached by radio in the cockpit, something needs to be remedied.
I understand the pilots need to keep their brain engaged on something so they don't doze off, but they can't get so engaged as to lose track of what they're doing.
It's SO boring! (Score:5, Insightful)
I am currently doing flight training to a commercial pilot level. One of the things I do as a skills practice is fly on MS Flight Simulator using the VATSIM (Virtual Air Traffic Simulation) network - http://www.vatsim.net/ [vatsim.net] - and I routinely fly transoceanic flights. We fly with real airline callsigns, following real aircraft routes and timetables. The instrumentation and controls are (for the most part) the same as the real thing. The Flight Management Computers in the simulated planes are exactly the same as the real thing. If you have good equipment, the hands-on controls are almost the same. It's a fun way to pass the time and keep skills up to date...BUT:
It's so boring! Here is an example of what I look at for 9 hours without touching anything: http://www.flickr.com/photos/14584559@N03/4502059275/ [flickr.com]
When you've got 9+ hours of looking at nothing, and you only have to make radio contact once an hour (North Atlantic Track position reports) there is actually nothing to do. At most, you scan the instruments every couple minutes. Even on the flight sim, I usually resort to what we call "In-flight Movies" which is essentially pull up Hulu and watch something until we next have to change the aircraft controls, which is usually when leaving land or making landfall on the other side.
You have a cruising altitude which is held by a computer, and a heading which follows a little line on your on-board GPS, and a speed which is usually also controlled by a computer(or if not, it's setting a lever to a certain position and leaving it there). There is literally NOTHING for the pilot to do if they can't have some sort of distraction. Some real-world pilots I have flown with read a newspaper or magazine, some play with a Game Boy, DS, PSP, etc Some get up and walk through the passenger cabin just like a "How are you, how's it going?" sort of thing. Almost like a chef in a restaurant would come out to the dining area and ask how people's food is.
On top of the endless boredom, they don't get paid nearly enough. Pilots have one of the lowest returns on their education costs of any profession. Throw in the fact that their skills are there to protect hundreds of lives at a time, and you'd think they would be well-paid.
Making regulations that prohibit them from minor distractions in the course of this endless boredom will most likely lead to highly detrimental results. I would not be surprised to see that there were more incidents with pilots falling asleep than previously as these regulations begin to take effect.
Very disappointing, FAA. Maybe you could instead start regulating things that jack up travel prices, waste fuel, and cause extreme delays, like airlines selling more flights in and out of airports than the runways can physically accommodate in a given amount of time. Or like the stupid TSA requirements that we are subjected to as passengers on commercial airlines.
The airlines are failing, and it's their own damn fault. Unnecessary regulation like this is a waste of taxpayers' time and money, and pushes prospective customers and employees away from the industry.
Re:They need something to do (Score:4, Insightful)
I think one cockup a year is an acceptable rate, especially if it's one non-dangerous one. Forcing them to concentrate on nothing is going to lead to more serious problems as they fall asleep at the wheel instead.
Re:They need something to do (Score:3, Insightful)
Actually, that was a pretty dangerous cockup, but that was due to the fact they had their radio silenced or whatever.
They really shouldn't be flying around with that off at all. Even if they're paying attention to the plane, for all they know, the airport they've flying to has suffered some sort of disaster, or another plane is out of control and headed towards where they're flying, or Air Force One pulled rank on their flight corridor, or something external like that, and they should be flying elsewhere. Hell, maybe someone's started hijacking planes again, and the authorities have evidence that their associates are on your plane.
Not playing attention to the plane the entire time is probably fine, as planes now are so automated that if anything goes wrong, it gives a warning. As long as one of the pilots glances over the controls every ten minutes or so, it would be okay.
But not paying attention to the outside world via the radio is stupid.
I can't get behind that... needs something else (Score:3, Insightful)
It's bad enough being a passenger on lengthy flights. Being a pilot and making those trips over and over and over again? There has to be a way to allow the brain to relax at certain times. Studies have shown that 20 minutes is the optimal amount of time for class room lessons because after that, the mind tends to start drifting and losing focus. If this is true, then it is likely that a similar situation occurs for truck drivers and airline pilots. If a pilot's mind is going to drift while doing something, I'd rather it not be while watching controls and dials. There should be other protocols and procedures at play instead of simply demanding super-human focus and concentration of commercial pilots.
Re:They need something to do (Score:2, Insightful)
I read that as "Autopilots aren't inflatable." Anyone else make that mistake? Anyone?
Re:They need something to do (Score:3, Insightful)
What, like having air traffic control or the airline's dispatcher repeatedly trying to hail you on the radio and by text messages to see why you're not responding like you should?
These guys weren't paying attention to the operation of the aircraft at all -- if you can't tell that someone is calling you on the radio, a buzzer wouldn't do a damned thing. Chances are, one had already gone off.
Solving the wrong problem... (Score:3, Insightful)