<div class="bbWrapper">There is a need for a "situational awareness AI" solution for pilots. <b>Several pilots have died after flying low through a canyon, only to have the canyon narrow and then end.</b> They don't have the space to turn around, the height to roll over and dive out of it, or the time to climb over the canyon walls. This usually happens when a) they are in unfamiliar terrain, b) they fly down the wrong canyon, or c) their height above sea-level prevents the engine from providing the power they expect to climb quickly. A recent crash in Colorado had all three, killing a young airline pilot and his new bride. <br />
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Using satellite GPS, on-plane map software, and tower radar, <b>it should be possible to warn a pilot that they are about to enter a trap</b>. Once you are in a dead-end canyon, unless you can climb out of it, you are 100% going to crash. Some pilots will hug a canyon wall to give themselves the best chance of being able to turn around, but a sight-seer is often flying right down the middle and as low as possible. The only solution is to avoid it.<br />
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There are also a lot of crashes where something was seen by one pilot, radioed to the closest tower, and another <b>pilot was never warned</b> or was not paying attention. Things like unexpected storms, fog, or even ash from a volcano. <br />
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There was an airliner that flew from India to NY with a broken instrument used while landing. They got to NY, almost out of fuel, and their backup instrument also failed. A cloud bank covered the entire New England area, so there was no place to land visually. They flew around assuming they were going to end up crashing in to some neighborhood, when there was a break in the fog at a nearby small airstrip. They landed, the people were shuttled to the main airport, and not one of them had any idea the pilots had expected them all to die 15 minutes earlier. The problem, other than they kept expecting things to just work out, was that on the 15 hour flight, <b>they never checked for weather changes at their destination</b>. <br />
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If they had any hint, they could have landed at any of the thousands of airports they flew over during their trip. Somewhere, <b>some computer should have detected this developing situation</b>. If one of the two landing beacon detectors was broken, and they knew they were landing in a fog bank, then everyone's life was dependent on the remaining beacon detector. This could have triggered an alarm somewhere.<br />
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I mention all this because this is the about the 3rd time I've read about a canyon crash, I know several working pilots, and from a technical person, this all seems like something that could be fixed.<br />
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</div><i><span style="font-size: 10px"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbRqORwifvc" target="_blank" class="link link--external" rel="noopener">View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbRqORwifvc</a></span></i><br /></div>
