TV Show "Fast Forward"

It’s worse than that. It’s EVERYONE blacking out SIMULTANEOUSLY for about 2 minutes.

Systems would continue to work as they were set at the time of the blackout, and yes – this could result in people slumping over controls.

On the London Underground, for instance, very little is likely to go wrong as the trains have a “dead man’s handle” which stop the train if the driver fails to keep it set correctly. But of course you can’t do that if you’re more than a few feet off the ground, without causing severe “headaches”.

I think you’ve misunderstood.

Goes to show the quality of my english:eek:
Your post actually makes a lot more sence if you are talking about PEOPLE blacking out.
I took it to mean a disruption of Electricity. Ohh well 😀

I have been watching flash forward and found this question and answer very informative. Thanks to you all.

I think you’ve misunderstood. The programme “Flash Forward” (as I was so rightly corrected) is about people blacking out (and having a sneak peak at their lives 6 months in the future). Not a loss of power.

But you do cover a lot of my questions with great and relevant detail. Thanks.

There seem to have been, in this show, a exhorbitant number of crashes during a 2 minute blackout of almost all humans on the planet simultaneously.

There are too many “unknown unknowns” in that statement. How is the weather where there is high density traffic etc. For a power outage of only 2 min, I guess there would not be too many mid-airs, even if the weather was solid IFR. If the power outage would last for hours, then something might happen, but even then it all depends on too many “unknown unknowns”

Can they avoid each other in the event of a loss of ATC information for a couple of minutes?

They certain can. If the weather is good, pilots will use the Mk.I Eyeball with assistance from TCAS (Traffic Collision Avoidance System). In bad weather they would have to relay enterly on TCAS to give collision avoidance. And it works!

What would be the most likely cause of the majority of airliners simply “falling out of the sky” or otherwise coming to an unfortunate end if their crew loose consciousness for such a short period of time.

If we assume the aircraft is on autopilot at the time, nothing will happen if the loss of consciousness is only for a short time. Even if the aircraft is being manually flown at the time, if it is properly trimmed, it will continue to fly where it´s nose was pointed at the time of incapacitation (assuming of course the pilots do not fall onto the control column). If crew incapacitation lasts for longer periods, you have the scenario of the Helios crash in Greece. The aircraft will fly it´s route on autopilot until it reaches the end of it´s programmed route, and then fly it´s last heading until it runs out of fuel, or is shot down.

I’m somewhat dubious that so many actual air accidents could have happened to airliners – unless they’re sitting on the runway post arrival, and something coming up and landing behind them. Even so, wouldn’t anti-collision radar cause an auto go-around.

I´m not sure I understand the first part of your sentence. Most accidents to airliners today, happen because of some sort of human failure, be it pilots, ATC, mechanics etc. Regarding the latter part of the sentence, there is no anti-collision radar on board airliners. What we have, is call TCAS see above. It basically gives oral warnings and gives you visual representation of the where aircraft is on Nav display. The warnings come in two categories. One is called TA or traffic advisory: the TCAS has found a possible conflicting traffic and will alert the pilots by the oral warning: TRAFFIC TRAFFIC and will paint a yellow dot on the NAV display. This is to enable the pilots to get a possible visual on the traffic.
The other warning is a lot more serious. It is the Resolution Advisory or RA. Then the TCAS has detected a positive threat and issues the warning CLIMB CLIMB, or DESCENT DESCENT (other variations available!), a red dot will appear on the Nav display and a require rate of vertical change will appear on the vertical speed indicator (or a command bar will appear on the artifical horizon, depending on system installed.) The pilot must disconnect the autopilot and manually execute the required action.
The TCAS is a system, based on the transponder in each aircraft. The transponders “talk” to each other, so if one aircraft is ordered to climb, the other will be ordered to descent. Not following an RA WILL resault in an accident as seen when the TU-154 and B757 had a mid-air over southern Germany a few years ago.
The RA function of the TCAS is inhibited during the final approach, typically below 1000 feet. So in case of an aircraft on the runway, the pilot would only get a TA.
Oh, and there is no auto-go around. ALL go-arounds are initiated manually. There is no function in any of the auto pilots I know, that makes auto-go around.

I’m asking, because I’m aware that airliners have the ability to take-off – fly to destination – and land completely automatically. They’ve been auto-landing since the ’70’s as far as I know, certainly that’s the impression I’ve go over the last few years.

Thanks.

No aircraft has the ability to take off on auto pilot. It must ALWAYS be a manual thing, but auto-pilot can be engaged soon after take off on most types.

Sorry to do this, but just to correct you on one point…the TV show in question is called FlashForward…not Fast Forward, as far as I am aware!;)

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think all airliners (especially the smaller ones) are flown on autopilot for Take-off and landing. It would be very easy to crash if both pilots suddenly lost conciousness and slumped on the controls. IIRC, one of the guys from the programme quoted 250 airliners down in the US alone… I agree that would be a little high.

Deano can probably tell us how much flying is done by the autopilot these days.