Ask HN: Could dual pilot input help prevent Air India-like crashes?
1 amichail 4 7/12/2025, 12:02:02 PM
Maybe jetliners should require simultaneous physical input from both pilots for all sensitive switches, as a way to protect passengers from intentional actions by a single pilot.
In other words, both pilots would need to toggle their copy of a dual switch at approximately the same time.
Do you think this would be a reasonable safety measure?
I think there is a point in life when you just have to trust or the complexity and failure scenarios explodes.
By the way I have a similar feeling about software supply chains. You can do a little but there is a point it becomes futile.
In an airplane, there are a lot of "sensitive" controls.
I'd bet that such a change would cause more disasters than it prevented.
13:01 UTC: Pilot flying has heart attack.
13:02 UTC: So does pilot monitoring, after realizing he can’t move the throttle or put down the gear.
Two people exist for redundancy… when one fails, the other IS the safety.
How you prevent unauthorized intentional movements of vital switches is you pay people really well and give them lots of rest and very good psychological support systems.