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Originally Posted by Taltarzac725
There must be very seasoned travelers, former pilots, etc. on TOTV. Hope they can put in some insightful ideas about what might be done.
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If someone is crazy and intent on killing, especially a pilot, it cannot be stopped as long as he/she has access to the cockpit and controls. Period. This is why many cockpits are defended with lethal force.
I'll conservatively say that an airline traveling at cruise speed (500-600 mph) can be completely DESTROYED in about 3 SECONDS. That's right, a whopping 3 seconds to kill everyone aboard. Full input and reversal of the elevator or rudder at cruise speed will over-stress the airframe and result in an inflight breakup in a matter of seconds.
When you stop to think about it, we all place our lives in strangers hands nearly every day. When you pass oncoming traffic head-on without a barrier, you trust that the approaching driver will not intentionally swerve into your path. When you have surgery you trust many people from nurses, surgeons, anesthesiologists to all do their jobs professionally and without malice. We trust restaurant staff that they follow proper food handling protocols to prevent illness and death. We trust engineers and construction crews to properly design and build the buildings we enter daily. How about those ELECTRICAL lights in swimming pools?
Establishing some ground-based safety monitor to prevent this scenario by datalinking flight commands to airborne aircraft also opens up avenues for hacking and hijacking (i.e., Iran hacked and "stole" one of our military drones.)
Lots of questions, but unfortunately no easy answers.
(Boeing 767 Captain)