Wow. The pilots were actually OK but decided to let the automatic system finish it’s task.
It’s nice that it worked, but what if it hadn’t? The passengers never signed up to be guinea pigs. IMO, the pilots should have landed it.
I think it was just the two pilots on board.
Really? Nobody tried this before during testing?
Testing isn’t really an emergency situation.
So the passengers should be guinea pigs to see whether the pilots get it right, instead?
Pilots are fully trained to land a plane safely. I would trust a certified pilot before an automated system that has never been used to land passengers before.
Are you reading a different article than I am? There were no passengers on this flight.
the Autoland system automatically engaged during a flight from Aspen with no passengers on board.
But the vast majority of pilots have never landed in an actual emergency, either. The difference is, when one human pilot does it, that gives one human experience, but when an automated system does it, all airplane automated systems can gain from the experience.
So one way to look at it, based on the linked article, is that the pilots found themselves in an emergency situation and used their experience and judgement to allow the Autoland to continue because there were too many unpredictable variables in that situation for them to safely change course.
The article doesn’t go into the details, but taken at face value, I can’t say it was the wrong call.
I think it’s pretty cool.
Surely it provides for a pilot to take over if needed.
When I read the title I thought this thread was going to be about one of those ‘AI slop’ videos. For some reason I keep getting emergency landing AI vids in my Facebook feed-- a commercial jet has an engine on fire and is plummeting toward the ground. Things look awful grim-- but somehow it always seems to land on a highway or open field with minimal damage-- sometimes it even bounces a little, once or twice, then comes to a short stop. The airline industry must have switched from aluminum to rubber as a primary mainframe material, and I applaud their innovation.