Doors Case Study

 

The core theme of this week's case study was security around airplanes, airports, and the airline industry.

At the time of writing this an Air India aircraft bound to London from Ahmedabad has crashed just after take-off. 242 people were aboard and it fell in a residential area. Makes me feel how fragile human lives are and how pertinent it is to have conversations on life around us.

My thoughts on first encountering was an humble acknowledge of the fact of how little I know about the rules and regulations that govern this huge industry. Nonetheless, task at hand is to have recommendations around flying millions daily in a metal tube across the globe.

My group and I started discussing our impressions in the order given on case study slide. First being the physical security in the cockpit. In a passenger aircraft, cockpit is probably the keystone. Ideally, you would want to restrict access, have failsafes for when security is compromised, ensure the people in control are trained, rested and well. The doors problem lies herein, it's a no brainer that to limit access you lock the door. In cases of pilots being locked inside, or pilots falling ill, a super strong lock on the door can be a hinderance and feel unnecessary. But at the end of the day security is about maintaining a balance ensuring even in the worst case theres a way out at the same time not compromising on the original goal which was limiting access. 

Our group had some interesting ideas, what if the pilots are maleficent. To prepare for such a scenario we came up with having a way for the cabin crew to interfere. But this raised a new issue, what if the cabin crew who's our 'rescue' is compromised would you want to have someone on the outside to have the 'key' to the heart of the aircraft. At the end, borrowing from another group's idea, I think having at least 2 cabin crew members required to unlock the door in cases of an emergency is a safer option. We also collectively agreed to prefer physical locking mechanisms for door eg pneumatic, being cyber security students we were wary of depending on digital mechanisms.

Our distrust of dependance on computers was extended to not to go our remote overrides for aircrafts. At the end of the day, I personally, would trust the good judgement of the pilot if anything goes sideways.

In our scrutiny of the industry at large (airline industry, aircraft manufacturers and crew) we realised that the weakest link are humans in charge. Our suggestions were to not undermine training and mental health, a dedicated commitment to comfortable working conditions and always be prepared for the worst case scenarios. Being an international industry, having consistent regulations and timed audits would a go long way in ensuring safety and synchronisation.