Are Cockpit Cameras Just Around The Corner?
(CBS) -- Security cameras seem to be just about everywhere these days, except in airplane cockpits.
And it's airline pilots who are fighting hardest to keep them out. But why?
CBS 2's Derrick Blakley looks into the debate.
When Germanwings Flight 9525 crashed in the Alps last March -- an apparent act of suicide by co-pilot Andres Lubitz -- calls intensified for cockpit video to monitor pilots.
"We just don't see any additional value that a video recorder would add to the investigation," says Jay Heppner, who heads United's more than 12,000 members of the Airline Pilots Association.
He says data recorders and black boxes provide all the information necessary.
But data recorders can't answer what happened to the crew of Malaysia Flight 370, which crashed in the south pacific last year.
Or whether pilot suicide caused the crash of an Egypt air flight off Nantucket back in 1999.
"You're never going to get that from an instrument on a plane. That's where the pressure for this is growing and growing," says Joseph Schweitermann, a DePaul University transportation expert.
Cameras already monitor drivers on CTA buses. And operator cameras helped determine the cause in last year's Blue Line crash at O'Hare.
Federal authorities want a crash protected cockpit image recording system in passenger aircraft.
Pilots fear cockpit video could sensationalize the aftermath of an accident, or that it could be used for routine discipline instead of crash investigations.
"It's a tough argument, and I think it may ultimately be a losing argument as well," Schweitermann says.
The NTSB has been pushing for cockpit cameras at least since 2000.
