Originally Posted by
raindog308
Pilot's union? What?
Some facts...
The transponder can actually be turned off two ways: either by the control on the transponder unit, or by flipping the breaker that serves it. The ability to disable electrical components via breaker is an important safety feature. The device may be malfunctioning, shorting, present a fire hazard, etc. Nearly all electrical systems on a plane can be switched off for this reason.
Second, transponders have a "complete off" mode but transponder mode is not binary so "turning off" is actually a spectrum:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aviatio...rogation_modes
Besides safety, transponders are switched off if they're defective (bad data/too much data/misbehaving/etc.), or to reduce screen clutter in busy airports when parked - this benefits both ATC and other pilots. They could even conceivably be turned off to conserve battery power in a dire situation.
This is not to say that engineering is perfect or couldn't be improved - typically after a major accident, it is - but I don't think it's the pilot's union (and if so, which one? which country?
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Thanks for your post.
Two things. I do recall in the past actions by US based pilot unions fighting against black box recording of their conversations or any recording in the cockpit because it could be used against them if they used off color language, etc. But the obvious intention of such recordings is supporting public safety and arguing against that for the sake of preserving off color conversations seems pretty heinous to me. But as I said, and you quoted, those are just my assumptions.
Secondly from an engineering and public safety standpoint, as this incident proves, there ought to be a very well engineered tracking system that cannot be turned off by anyone anywhere. It ought to be engineered to the same level of reliability and redundancy as all the other critical flight systems so that there should never be a reason to turn them off. IMHO.