German Air Controllers Call on Aviation Industry for Remote Command of Planes

In response to the Germanwings crash last month, the German air traffic control authority has called on the aviation industry to consider technology that would allow people on the ground to take remote command of a passenger plane and safely land it.

Voice recording and flight data indicate Germanwings pilot Andreas Lubitz locked his captain out of the cockpit and deliberately steered the Airbus A320 into a mountainside on March 24, killing all 150 passengers and crew on board.

"We have to think past today's technology," Klaus Dieter Scheurle, head of the Deutsche Flugsicherung air traffic control authority, said at a press conference today.

Such a system could be used in an emergency to take command of the plane and steer it safely to the ground, he said.

"I wouldn't say it's the simplest solution though," he said, adding any such technology was likely to come only in the next decade.

Pilots associations are sceptical.

German pilots' union Vereinigung Cockpit said remote control could be open to abuse.

"We also have to ask whether such a solution would really be an improvement, after all it's the pilots who are sitting in the cockpit and they're the ones with all the information," VC spokesman Markus Wahl said.

The British Airline Pilots' Association (BALPA) also urged caution.

"We must act with careful consideration to ensure new safety risks or concerns are not created, such as those raised by the vulnerability of any form of remote control of a passenger aircraft," a spokesman said.

Since the Germanwings crash, European airlines have implemented a rule that two people must be in the cockpit at all times and Germany has set up a task force with the aviation industry to consider changes to medical and psychological tests for pilots.