Air India 171: Cameras in Cockpit

Why don't planes have cockpit cameras?

Mentor pilot has a piece out on it.

Let's go see. And as a pilot, I'll give

you my opinion on what this guy says.

Good news is I actually like this guy.

It's also a human one. So, what might

seem like common sense and a

technological no-brainer can actually be

a problem of trust or the lack of it.

So today I will look at why cockpit

cameras still aren't required, what

benefits investigators believe that they

offer, and why some pilots and unions

are pushing back.

>> I knew it was the union.

>> Let's start by defining what we're

actually talking about. What we call a

cockpit video recorder is not a system

that is capable of streaming footage to

the ground in real time like space

launch cameras or webcams. No, what

investigators want is much more limited

and more familiar. They want a small

crash survivable camera that records the

flight deck during normal operations

with its footage being stored in the

same kind of crash protected memory unit

that we already use for voice and data.

>> The black boxes

>> and also just like

>> which used to be painted black but are

no longer painted black because it was

hard to find them in black wreckages.

Now they're orange boxes that we call

black boxes.

>> With those systems, this video should in

theory only be accessed in the event of

a serious incident or accident. And

>> that's right, bring the cockpit cameras

to put on only

>> show a limited time of the flight.

So with that, the cockpit video recorder

would in essence become the third piece

in what's often known as the blackbox

system. the flight data recorder or FDR

which tracks hundreds or even thousands

of parameters.

>> We we know what's in it. So why how they

could help? Well, we could see what

happens. Why are pilots against it? All

right, let's get to this part.

>> Had a very clear position on this. They

do not want cameras in the cockpit. And

that reasoning first and foremost has to

do with privacy.

The flight deck isn't just the office.

It's also where pilots make high

pressure decisions, work through

problems, and sometimes express feelings

like fear or even frustrations about

their employers.

That is actually exactly why I think you

don't want cameras. And and as a pilot,

I recognize it because

you start showing how pilots actually

feel when they land a plane. People

might start freaking out about flying

and it hurts the whole industry. Now I I

don't care. I put cockpit cameras all

over the place in my cockpits. I love

cameras around my cockpit. I'll show you

my cockpit any day of the week.

>> Uh in fact, that's my trailer. I'll show

you one right here. And I want you to

see my reaction at the end of the

landing. Going to have you go.

>> And I think this is why people don't

want the cockpit cameras. I put them all

over the place. This is my takeoff.

Here's my land. So, just to set the

stage, this is going into an airport

called uh the Hebrew Valley Airport. It

is a visual approach. Uh there's no

instrument path to get into here. I can

take an instrument path uh roughly at to

about maybe like I'd have to still make

about a 70° turn. I have to dunk it in

if I follow the instruments. Usually,

you're just going to call off using your

instrument approach and you're going to

go visual on this. Otherwise, you're not

getting into this airport. This is an

example of me going in visually. So,

this is the setup here. And uh you could

see a little bit of the valley here.

Mind you, where I am right now, I'm

maybe only a,000 ft above the hillside

of the Hebrew Valley.

>> About 3 miles to the north now. He

valley flaps full.

>> Yes, please.

>> Lights on.

You can't see it as well on the left

here. It looks like I'm higher up here,

but the terrain is even lower in front

of me.

>> Forget that.

>> Right here. Right here. This is

>> That's right. You're

>> You can see and Betty actually

yell sync rate.

>> Sync rate.

>> Stop.

>> That's right.

>> So, this is that's kind of like the

attitude that you have with the

machines, right? Right. It's like, "All

right, shut up, lady." Like, I know you

see the terrain. I see the terrain.

We're fine. Pilots

say things in the scope of their work.

But then again, that's already in the

voice recorder. So, does it really make

a difference? I think people just don't

want maybe the idea that the image of

the pilot is going to leak get leaked.

Again, I like me, I don't care. If you

shove a camera in it, I I'll do the same

thing. I mean, I'm on camera every day,

but I think a lot of people, especially

maybe older generations of pilots, are

like, "No, man. This is going to leak

and and it's going to take away like the

badassness of being a pilot." But like,

watch this for example. This is where

and Betty goes off. And we've

shown this before in another video on

and Betty, but it's it's good to

catch up on in case you haven't seen it.

Here we go.

>> So, a little fast, but um glide path is

starting to come in here.

>> Sync rate.

Pull up.

Go around. Wind shear ahead. Unstable

approach. Sink rates.

>> All of them. You're good. You're good.

>> 500.

>> So like that kind of stuff. The public

sees it. Probably might make people a

little nervous. Again, this is more of a

like an extreme fear of these things

actually getting leaked or whatever. But

listen to my my comment after we hit the

ground because this was hard. This was

not an easy landing. It's a very narrow

runway as well. Very narrow runway. It

was a butter landing, but still.

>> Watch what I say. Out.

>> Oh Bulls, dude. That was hard. Oh

man. Dude, you did good. You did really

good.

>> Thank you. I was shaking, dude.

>> I was going to have you go out a little

further. I meant out to the valley to

give you time to get down, but that

worked.

>> That was like Good job, buddy.

>> Yeah, that was like a little a little

bit quick, but you made it work.

>> Here you go. So, like this is my sort of

like real pilot experience of probably

why pilots don't necessarily love the

idea of cameras in the cockpits. Uh just

because it is, you know, it's an intense

job. Uh and you know, I saw somebody in

the comments here like, "Okay, what

about cameras and no microphones then?"

But microphones are also important

because you got to hear that crew

communication, my controls, your

controls, that positive exchange of

controls. Who's doing the radios? Who's

doing the switches? Who's doing the call

outs? Who's rotating the aircraft? Like

some of these things, you're not going

to know which yoke is receiving the

input pressure unless you also have the

verbal. Of course, I guess if you have a

cockpit camera, you could just see it.

Uh, so I guess I could see the argument,

but you still want to hear the tonality

between the pilots. What are they

saying? And I think that's why it's

always been so normal to have the audio.

Why no video? I don't know. It's

probably just an old school thing. Like

I say, I I wouldn't care. Uh because I'm

on camera all day, any day, and I film

my stuff anyway. But let's hear what

they say.

>> It's also where professionals respond to

emergencies, including ones that might

take their lives. And many pilots are

deeply uncomfortable with the idea that

these moments could be captured on

video.

See, like see somebody in the comments

like commercial pilots shouldn't be like

that. Well, like you have to recognize

there's well this is what you should be

and then you have to recognize the

reality. Like it's it's not an easy job,

especially you're coming in on a

crosswinds landing or in nasty weather

or whatever. This is not an easy job.

Becomes even more uncomfortable when

considering what might happen to that

footage after an accident. Because

whilst cockpit voice recordings are

protected under the strict access rules

in most countries, video introduces a

whole new level of concern.

What if it's leaked to the media? What

if it's subpoenaed by a court? What if

it's used not for safety, but to assign

blame or exploited in social media?

>> Oh, also another thing, by the way, what

if your, you know, your boss basically

it you, you know, uses it to monitor you

or whatever. I'm sure those fears will

come up. Although again, like these are

the same kind of protections you could

probably create with the cockpit voice

recorder. So, I think there are ways to

guard this information from being leaked

uh and and ensure that they're only

revealed in the event of an accident. Uh

but I I understand people's fears

>> and the press. This, by the way, isn't

hypothetical. In the aftermath of

several high-profile accidents, cockpit

audio or unredacted transcripts have

been leaked and widely circulated,

causing enormous distress for victim's

families and for the

>> well and then it's also like if you're

on video then it's your face related to

that. You never get a job again in your

career. You know, you become basically

the face of an oopsies. That could be

another factor. wider flight crew

community. In 2005, audio from the fatal

crash of Tunin 1153 leaked to the

widespread condemnation from the

families, proving that even careful

protections might not always be enough.

>> Right?

>> This is of course bad enough with audio,

but video would be much, much worse. And

while some pilot actions will certainly

be useful for investigators to see, when

it comes to the

>> Oh, it would be incredibly useful. I

mean, if you had cockpit video of Air

India 171, there would be no speculation

anymore. Like, let's be real. There

would be zero speculation. We would

instantly know, was this terrorism or

was it a mistake? Well, golly, that

would be really nice to know because if

it was terrorism, now we need to figure

out what could we have prevented

potentially in this person's history or

identified in this person's history to

prevent this from happening again. If it

was a mistake because the switches

weren't investigated, then maybe when

the FAA puts out an information

bulletin, they should actually put out

airworthiness directives and we should

have some more pressure on regulatory

bodies to prevent these mistakes from

just being ignored because they're just

advisory recommendations.

Wider public, it's not hard to imagine

something getting misinterpreted or even

misrepresented.

We've all seen this happening already

after basically any high-profile

accident or incident. It's not rare to

see all information getting spun around

in the media and online often completely

out of

>> course because people want to know.

People want to know what's going on. So

people share theories or whatever.

Frankly, like let's let's just be real

about this for a moment, okay? Straight

up real.

Cameras would be fantastic in the

cockpits for education on accidents and

knowing what happened and saving lives

in the long term. In the long term, it

is likely that cockpit videos

would likely be educational tools that

would actually save lives.

That's my opinion. Now, a lot of people

aren't going to agree with this. Uh, I'm

a big fan of it because like, you know,

even even when we go do a takeoff, for

example, I think I do I have a takeoff

here? Uh, no. I've got a takeoff clip

here I could show. But every single

uh, you know, what do you want to call

it? Every single flight, I always look

and do sort of an after briefing. I'm

like, all right, what could we have done

better here? And video is such a great

tool for doing that. not only for me

personally as I'm flying critiquing

myself but also when we look at accident

uh you know incidents that happen with

other aircraft I personally think it's

it's very useful to see hey if there's

video footage of the actual aircraft

crashing we can really specifically see

what's going on what happened and what

potentially could have been prevented in

the future so here's an example actually

coming out of Heber uh which I think is

very interesting because coming out of

Heber isn't easy because you have to do

a visual climb over the airfield and so

you do about uh we probably do about you

know one and a half turns around the

airfield. I can't remember exactly on

this flight but I love this stuff. So

let's be clear cockpit videos would

probably longer term save lives.

Would there be the risks of

embarrassments, career destroying video

footage, leaks uh or or whatever?

Absolutely. But frankly, you could

probably cover that up by not only

having strict safety standards for or

like procedures for what happens with

these recordings in the black boxes

where they're not accessible over the

internet or whatever, like they have to

be mechanically removed, whatever you

want to call it. Uh, but you could

probably solve with some form of like

insurance for like surviving pilots who

were like, you know, discriminated

against in the future because of

something in a video or whatever, right?

Like there are ways to solve that,

>> but ultimately I would say you probably

>> are in a position.

>> All right,

>> there you go. Breaks up.

>> Probably in a position

>> three ways

>> 6,000 to go

>> where you would save lives with cockpit

video.

>> Here's just a quick takeoff.

>> Like look how much I could see with a

360 camera. I could see everything.

Whose hands are on the controls? Are we

buckled up? Are our radios on? You know,

what what cast messages are on my

screen? Uh, you know, what what speed am

I actually rotating at? Right. We call

V1, but what speed am I actually

rotating at?

>> Obviously, I clip away in this case. Oh,

there it is.

>> Yeah, V1 was 106 and I rotated about

107. Perfect. Right.

>> We get to 400, we'll do flaps. Yep. That

>> climb coming.

All right, I'm going to call 400 over.

>> Flaps up.

>> Flaps up. Gear up. Flap up.

>> See, this is all uh manual flight right

here, too. I uh I purposfully don't go

autopilot on this one. Uh we are setting

the heading on the autopilot system, but

it makes no difference to the flight

controls at the moment. It's just more

of sort of like a little guide. Uh but

this is all uh a hand flown uh VCOA,

visual climb over airfield. But anyway,

I don't know. I like I guess if somebody

said, "Kevin, well, what's your take?" I

would make the argument that cockpit

videos would probably save lives. Are a

lot of pilots going to hate it? Hell

yeah. And that's why you're probably not

going to see it because frankly, you'd

probably see a lot of retirements of old

and highly experienced pilots who are

like, "F it. I'm done." And then the

cost of airfare is going to go up.

You're going to lose pilots. you'll

have, you know, on average your your

years of experience will go down uh in

flights. Uh, you know, I mean, there are

definitely downsides. I think they're

more generational. I would actually make

the argument that within the next 10

years, as we kind of get to the next

generation of pilots, uh, that become

more mainstream, cockpit video will

probably become the mainstream,

uh, norm. That would be my ga my guess.

Uh so, you know, still still actually

not on autopilot here visually climbing

over this airfield, which is kind of

cool in my opinion. You can see we're

about to hit 10,000 ft. There we go.

10,000 ft. Just hit 10,000. Going only

going about 150 knots right now. for 56

knots cuz I'm I'm trying to climb as

fast as I can uh to uh to basically not

only get my height, but I'm trying to

get to 14,000 to pick up my IFR

clearance cuz you can't even get radio

comms with LA down there. It's uh it's

or or whatever. In fact, I think you

hear that here.

>> Perfect. Traffic still looks good.

>> Yep. Okay, cool.

>> Salt Lake Center 69er 4 pop up with

request.

>> Thanks on the power. Yep, no problem.

Oh, we might have to meet a papa papa

calling. I believe it's 69. They can

barely hear me. Papa offer city.

>> Roger. Looking to pick up an IFR popup.

We're um a couple miles out from

Naughty.

>> Uh 12 miles.

>> By a couple, I mean 12. Sorry. 69er 4

Papa37.

>> 4037. 6 ner 4 Papa.

couple miles

212. You

>> say you're overhe over the airport at

115 or whatever.

>> Yeah, fair.

>> Anyway, uh so that just gives you an

example. Yeah, that's my take. All

right. Why not advertise these things

that you told us here? I feel like

nobody else knows about this.

>> We'll we'll try a little advertising and

see how it goes.

>> Congratulations, man. You have done so

much. People love you. People look up to

you.

>> Kevin Pra there, financial analyst and

YouTuber. Meet Kevin. Always great to

get your take.