WASHINGTON -- THE computers in the cockpits of modern jets help airline pilots with more and more tasks: plotting routes, calculating fuel use and takeoff speeds, relieving the tedium of 14-hour flights and finding the way through the clouds. But what about dealing with the Sept. 11 problem, hijackers who want to turn planes into weapons?

Many of the electronic building blocks are in place for a system onboard airplanes that would thwart air pirates, according to aviation experts. In fact, systems that could prevent terrorists from crashing a plane into a building, or even crashing the plane at all, would require no fundamental breakthroughs. But people in the aviation industry doubt they will be used any time soon. "It's not something that could happen in the near term at all," said Diane Spitaliere, a spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration.

The reason is part of a dilemma of aviation since Sept. 11: steps that increase security once a plane is in the air may create their own safety risks. The most visible example is the use of F-16 combat planes over major American cities, their pilots ready to force down or even shoot down an off-course airliner.

Less dramatic, computer-controlled solutions are available. The problem is that while pilots love computers, they do not trust them as much as themselves.

In the weeks after the September hijackings, various experts (and, according to the Federal Aviation Administration, lots of people who merely thought they were experts) came up with hundreds of ideas.

Among the ideas that are getting close scrutiny are onboard flight-control systems that could be programmed to prevent planes from heading into restricted areas; remote control from the ground that could not be overridden from the cockpit; and a panic button, also impossible to override, that has the plane direct itself to land at the nearest suitable field.

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/11/te...ts/11FLYY.html