Cameras Being Deployed on Aircraft to Improve Safety, Security

Air Safety Week, June 9, 2003

Of 100 incidents over a two-year period, Lowe said, 98 of the cases were dropped "thanks to the video evidence."

Tom King, of Northrop Grumman's Marine Information Systems, said video technology is being deployed on ships. The imagery on the ship's navigation radar is recorded, and CCTV cameras capture activity on the bridge, to include the bridge wings. In addition, he said, CCTV coverage is being expanded to cover internal spaces and external areas of the ship where cargo containers are stacked. The need for improved security has provided the impetus for these developments.

By the way, an increasing number of U.S. school buses are being fitted with video recorders. According to Steve Belden, president of Texas-based Zepco, a manufacturer of vehicle recorders, a school bus might feature cameras to cover the driver, the step-up entranceway, and students sitting in rows behind the driver. A supplementary camera might be placed in the back, to cover activity in the last rows. In addition, cameras can be installed to cover the flip-out passing barrier mounted on the front fender. In this respect, the video coverage for school buses goes well beyond the debate over cockpit video in the aviation industry.

Privacy protection

Can video recordings of accidents find their way into the public domain? The final moments of aircrews might become the voyeuristic grist of "snuff films" on the Internet. In addition, employees may find the constant camera coverage intrusive.

Christopher Julius of the NTSB's office of general counsel said, "There is a lot of emotion and a lot of concern about privacy issues."

In the railroad industry, video may be expanded to cover activity inside the locomotive's control cabin. That initiative is a close analog to video coverage in the cockpit of an airliner.

Robert Harvey of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, said crewmembers occupy the cab of a locomotive for up to 12 hours per day. Much of the time the locomotive is not moving and activity during this period is seldom safety critical. He suggested that the video recordings should only be used for accident investigations, that the field of view should be restricted to the engineer's look outside the locomotive and the hand movement of controls, and that an erase feature should be incorporated, which could be activated by the crew at the end of a duty tour, "provided no FRA [Federal Railway Administration] or NTSB reportable accident has occurred."

The erase feature could be sort of a "dual key" system, where the crew would receive by radio an authorization code from the company to erase the information.

"The government is asking for this [video] technology, so I think the government has some responsibility to assure that the data is protected," Harvey declared.

Capt. Terry McVenes from the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) offered this perspective:

"Without a doubt, protecting recorded data in any form on a global basis is a monumental task. Therefore if we are to go down the road of cockpit imagery, the most reasonable solution from the ALPA perspective is to limit the field of view of video recording devices. By focusing the cameras only on such things as cockpit instruments, displays and annunciators, such image data might aid in an accident investigation if it is used in conjunction with other investigative techniques.