Nigeria and the parable of the plane on auto pilot

I understand that when an aircraft reaches cruising altitude, the pilot can transfer the flight to the computer and go to sleep, perhaps only to be woken up when the aircraft approaches its destination, so that the ‘human pilot ‘can take over from the ‘auto pilot’ and land the plane safely. Often I pray that I do not fly in a plane that will be flown by the auto pilot. And a friend told me, it is inevitable, given that I fly often and that I was most likely to be flown by an auto pilot if I was doing the long haul across the Atlantic or the Pacific. In which case, I began to pray that if I must be flown by an auto pilot, then the human pilots should please be awake and even if they need to sleep, then they should take turns to sleep so that one of the pilots must be awake at any given time. I am told that the co-pilot can fly the plane like the captain and in front of both are replicas of the same flying equipment.

Part of my concerns on the auto pilot option is that once in a while, the plane runs into rough weather. How does the auto pilot respond? Some planes have crashed in rough weather. Did the absence of human pilots at the time of impact contribute to these crashes or it could have happened either way? My own thinking as a passenger is that when the human pilot sees dangerous weather ahead, he takes precautions like changing altitude or changing course. The programmed auto pilot may not be that sensitive to danger or even be flexible.

Today in Nigeria, I have a feeling of someone in a troubled plane on auto pilot and I am quite apprehensive. In this plane, the captain is sick and so can be assumed to be sleeping. So the co-pilot is awake which is good. But the equipment in front of the co-pilot seems not to be exactly what is in front of the captain. His equipment is hamstrung and suboptimal. And so I am worried that this co-pilot may have problem adequately steering the plane in the current rough weather that Nigeria has run into. My second worry is that no one knows how long the captain will need to sleep, so that he can come back to relieve the co-pilot so that he too can then take some rest, more so, since the co-pilot seems not to have full empowerment to steer the plane at this period of rough weather. Thus fatigue and incompetent equipment may imperil the plane and its full load of passengers.

My apprehension is worsened by two other untoward developments. The crew seems to have divided loyalty to the co-pilot who, to all intents and purposes, has become the acting captain. Rather than take orders from the co-pilot, some crew members first have to ask the resting captain before responding, some others outrightly ignore the co-pilot. All who fly in airplanes will agree that this divided or dual loyalty can pose great danger to the safety of the plane and ultimately that of the passengers.

Now another serious concern to me is that the air traffic controllers on the ground who must give support to this lonely and fatigued co-pilot who is struggling with an incompetent equipment to keep the airplane in flight have served notice that they were going on strike and that they would cut off communications with the co-pilot who had the temerity to question their right to determine which altitude the pilot would fly. For reasons best known to the co-pilot, he believes he should choose his altitude and then move on with the flight but the air traffic controllers who are very distinguished are in no mood to have the co-pilot disavow their advice. All those who are familiar with the global rules of flying, know, that there is division of labour. The pilots file their flight plans and those who manage the airspace approve or disapprove, sometimes allocating to them different altitudes or even altering the approved altitudes while the pilots are in flight; the reason being that they have a wider radar that enables them see all the planes in flight and have a better understanding of the weather patterns and developments.

Now can you see how dangerous this flight is getting? The captain is on long and indeterminate rest, the co-pilot is flying with incomplete equipment, the crew have divided loyalty, some hesitant to obey orders and then the air-traffic controllers threatening to switch off communications. Who will want to ride in this kind of airplane? And some people say we should not worry, that all is well. Others echo that there is no problem at all, what we need is to restructure our thinking and the plane will continue in safe flight.

But the most frightening part of this whole drama, if you are so inclined to think so, is that there is deafening commotion in the cabin. The passengers are at each other’s throat. Many are afraid, the plane could crash. Some think this plane is going nowhere and they are lashing at each other. Some are hungry and angry, having been served no meal for long as the crew focused on serving only those sitting on the isle seats, ignoring the rest. In fact, some of the passengers are threatening that they would break the windows and bail out because they are getting suffocated. Some others are shouting on the distraught co-pilot to drop them off immediately without considering how difficult that would be. Some others got very angry with those shouting to be dropped, and then ordered them out or they would push them out. In the midst of this pandemonium, the co-pilot got distracted, put the plane on auto pilot and placed the plane in the hold in very rough weather and began preaching to the passengers.

Can you see my worry which has now escalated into an alarm? What will happen if this plane circulating without landing runs out of fuel? What will happen if those who threatened to break the windows carry out their threat? Or what will happen if those who ordered the noisy passengers to leave or be forced out carry out their threat?

Can you please help to wake up the captain – that is if that will be of any help!

Mazi Sam I. Ohuabunwa OFR