Nothing safety critical would have been entrusted to the iPad. The pilots would be able to deal with the problem with either ATC support (anything the pilots can read to each other, ATC can read to them) or backup papers.
Yes, if you're on the ground, you won't be taking off without the stuff, but that's obvious when it can be fixed by the pilot getting out for a few minutes.
People don't screw around with plane safety. The failure mode of 'our iPads turned off' will have been considered as a prelude to their being introduced.
> Nothing safety critical would have been entrusted to the iPad.
I'm afraid I must disagree here. The iPad is a replacement for a bunch of paper manuals and maps and charts which are the backups to the ones contained in the flight computers. So if your iPad doesn't work any more, you don't have a backup anymore and that is safety critical.
It is not safety critical. In the unlikely event of both flight computers failing (many aircraft carry a backup FMC/FMS, but even a single computer is far more reliable than anything made on HN), and the consumer iPad which is barely FAA approved as a backup not working, any pilot can land the aircraft with their eyes closed. You think reference materials for the aircraft are the only thing keeping you alive and everything is hopeless if the pilot loses his weight tables? They're specifically trained when they get type rated and have all of the important figures memorized. Not ideal, sure, but "not safe" is another ballgame.
EFBs have a long history in the cockpit. Charts are required to be carried by FAR, but honestly, a scheduled commercial flight genuinely needing to consult one in anger is very rare. That was the impetus to get the FAA to approve iPads for EFB use in the first place, I think, was pilots making the case that they're needed so infrequently that an iPad is fine.
Threads like this make me wish there was more general awareness of what goes on in the cockpit, because I think it would go a long way toward assuaging unnecessary fear. Aviation is one of those rare regulation success stories where pretty much everything has been thought of.
Nothing safety critical would have been entrusted to the iPad. The pilots would be able to deal with the problem with either ATC support (anything the pilots can read to each other, ATC can read to them) or backup papers.
Yes, if you're on the ground, you won't be taking off without the stuff, but that's obvious when it can be fixed by the pilot getting out for a few minutes.
People don't screw around with plane safety. The failure mode of 'our iPads turned off' will have been considered as a prelude to their being introduced.