Are cockpit selfies making flying riskier?
There has been a lot of talk about cockpit safety in wake of recent incidents and how advent in technology is bringing more distractions for the crew. There have been incidents that have shown how even the trained crew are unaware that they maybe breaking the rules. Quartz ran an interesting piece illustrating how cockpit crew was blatantly clicking selfies all the while when it is expected that the cockpit should be sterile. As explained in the article this has been a cause of catastrophic accidents at times and it is only bound to get worse as and how technology invades every possible space in our lives. They also published a follow up about the rules in places from FAA and European agencies about the same in the form of an illustrative flowchart
All Nippon Airways (ANA) recently shot a film inside the cockpit of its jet while it was en-route from Haneda Airport to Toyama Airport. You can see the time-lapse video below. I can understand how exciting and beautiful view you have while sitting in a cockpit and all this adds up to the thrill of clicking yourself and showing to the public as that is what majority of these social networks are all about. But the crew needs to be mindful that anything that affects their full attention towards their job of controlling the plane needs to be avoided at all costs as they are not only endangering their own life but of passengers too. It’s all about understanding and having a fine balancing act between the urge to be more socially likeable compared to being fully responsible on the job. The choice is tough one i guess for the people these days to make.