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posted by Fnord666 on Wednesday August 09 2017, @01:33PM   Printer-friendly
from the queue-the-'Airplane!'-references-in-3,2,1 dept.

Pilotless commercial airliners are about to be tested, but potential passengers are wary:

How comfortable would you feel getting on a pilotless plane? That is the question millions of people may have to ask themselves in the future if they want to jet off on holiday around the world.

As we move closer to a world of driverless cars, which have already been on the road in some US cities and have also been tested in London, remotely controlled planes may be the next automated mode of transport. Plane manufacturer Boeing plans to test them in 2018.

A survey by financial services firm UBS suggests that pilotless aircraft not be too popular, however, with 54% of the 8,000 people questioned saying they would be unlikely to take a pilotless flight. The older age groups were the most resistant with more than half of people aged 45 and above shunning the idea.

Only 17% of those questioned said they would board such a plane, with more young people willing to give them a try and the 25 to 34 age group the most likely to step on board.

[...] Steve Landells, the British Airline Pilots Association's (Balpa) flight safety specialist, said: "We have concerns that in the excitement of this futuristic idea, some may be forgetting the reality of pilotless air travel. Automation in the cockpit is not a new thing - it already supports operations. However, every single day pilots have to intervene when the automatics don't do what they're supposed to. Computers can fail, and often do, and someone is still going to be needed to work that computer."

Fnord666: So how about it soylentils? Would you fly on a pilotless plane?


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  • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday August 09 2017, @05:44PM (4 children)

    by JoeMerchant (3937) on Wednesday August 09 2017, @05:44PM (#551210)

    For added fun, try an international connecting flight.

    We flew from St. Maarten through Miami with a connecting flight out. Pass a moderate level of TSA in SXM, then arrive Miami - walk a mile, make a long line to get a chit from a "Customs Bot" then make another LOOOOONG line to hand your chit to a customs person, then walk two miles to your connecting flight... oh, but wait, you ALSO have to pass TSA again after customs before you enter the domestic concourse. We had 2:30 to make our connection, spent 1 hour of it waiting on the tarmac waiting to get a gate we could deplane from - then ran like maniacs from line to line to just barely arrive at our connecting flight as they were making last call for boarding... THEN wait outside for 30 minutes before we can actually board the connecting flight for some unexplained reasons.

    Lesson re-learned: American Airlines suck, especially at their own hubs, and CustomsBot+Customs+TSA doesn't help.

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  • (Score: 2) by NewNic on Wednesday August 09 2017, @08:32PM (3 children)

    by NewNic (6420) on Wednesday August 09 2017, @08:32PM (#551283) Journal

    When booking flights between CA and the UK, I notice that AA frequently offers flights where the chance of making the connection is close to zero.

    They offer flight combinations where there isn't enough time to get through immigration and customs, deposit your bags back into the baggage system, then change terminals, get through security and finally, make the walk to the gate.

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    • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday August 09 2017, @09:01PM (2 children)

      by JoeMerchant (3937) on Wednesday August 09 2017, @09:01PM (#551292)

      We're US citizens, traveling as a family with pitiful looking children, so we made the Customs-person line in almost no-time flat.

      Non-US citizens would NEVER have made that connection after waiting on the tarmac all that time, and probably not even if we had taxied straight up to the gate.

      You feel bad for the pilots, we took off 5 minutes late, landed 5 minutes early, but then they didn't get us off the plane for another hour. Not the pilots' fault, but I definitely blame the airline and curse them for counting that as an "on-time arrival" in their statistics.

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      • (Score: 2) by NewNic on Wednesday August 09 2017, @09:34PM (1 child)

        by NewNic (6420) on Wednesday August 09 2017, @09:34PM (#551313) Journal

        I have experienced waiting for 45 minutes and more to exit the customs hall. Not a wait for my bags to appear, but a wait in the line to go past the checkpoint. I don't know what was going on on those days, but I was glad to have a long layover.

        I have had layovers where I only made my connecting flight because my frequent flyer status got me into the faster line at the security checkpoint.

        --
        lib·er·tar·i·an·ism ˌlibərˈterēənizəm/ noun: Magical thinking that useful idiots mistake for serious political theory
        • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Thursday August 10 2017, @12:35PM

          by JoeMerchant (3937) on Thursday August 10 2017, @12:35PM (#551592)

          Oh, we also only made the boarding call because we were carry-on only, for a 3 week stay. That was one line we got to skip.

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