NTSB And Pilots Exchange Words Over Cockpit Video Surveillance

How would you like to go to work knowing that, while on the job, your every move was being recorded and possibly subject to intense after-the-fact scrutiny? Union airline pilots don't like the idea at all. Still, the NTSB is pushing the FAA to mandate camera monitoring systems in the cockpit.

"Frequently we were hampered in our [accident] investigations," said NTSB member Carol Carmody who is chairing two days of hearings on the issue. "From my point of view, the more time it takes for the board to get to a probable cause [of an accident], the less safe it is." She was quoted in the Chicago Tribune Wednesday.

But unions like the ALPA say the cameras would be an unwelcome intrusion, would increase pilot stress and lead investigators to interpret events in a highly subjective way.

Pilots are also worried that disaster videos gleaned by cockpit cameras might fall into the wrong hands, subjecting the families of crash victims to repeated showings of their loved ones' last moments on television.

The ALPA and other unions do support the idea of a camera just outside the cockpit door, pointed back at the passenger cabin. That camera could be used to confirm the identity of someone wanting in before the cockpit crew opened the door.

FMI: www.alpa.org, www.ntsb.gov