Flight QF72: What happens when automation leaves pilots powerless?
They mention it once in the article, but this has basically been true since fly-by-wire, which was quite a while ago.<p>While it may seem timely to blame automation for this one, you could just as easily blame faulty sensors (like the iced up sensors they mention) or faulty mechanicals, such as pumps, hydraulics, wiring, electrical shorts, etc.<p>The sad thing is, as we go faster (both in terms of speed and technology), things will only get more complex.  We&#x27;re also far past the point where human pilots and crew might be able to do something about it.<p>Let&#x27;s say it wasn&#x27;t fly-by-wire, and it was hydraulics tied to the stick.  If you lost power, you still probably wouldn&#x27;t be able to move the stick, or it wouldn&#x27;t do anything.  Either way you are in deep trouble.<p>The real solution is redundancy.  They mention the triple flight computers in the Airbus, but in the end, there will always be possible problems of all types.  In computers, there are also hardware (not software bugs) errors that may occur at any time.<p>One of the things devs love to joke about is heisenbugs.  If you have debugged these, and only found them on one machine, it&#x27;s probably your memory doing a bit-flip.  Solar radiation can do that, especially at higher altitudes.  Just because we&#x27;re behind our magnetic field doesn&#x27;t make it go away, and at higher altitudes you do have a slightly higher error rate.  Now we&#x27;re just back to byzantine general territory where you have to figure out which one is lying.  Again, coming down to probability that you didn&#x27;t lose two at the same time.<p>While it&#x27;s easy to say that the system should have just done &quot;the right thing&quot; - when you learn more about how the system works, and how complicated it is, you realize how hard that is.  And problems in handling errors or trouble are some of the hardest to find, and have the most damaging consequences.<p>Spacecraft (manned or otherwise) have these exact same problems. (Source: I&#x27;ve worked on aerospace systems)<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Fly-by-wire" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Fly-by-wire</a>