What should I do if I feel the pilot is guiding the flight in the wrong direction? [closed]

With the current news about the aviation industry, it's a bit scary to travel by flight. But I have no choice as I need to go back home. :)

So now I'm thinking that while I'm inside the flight, if I felt:

The flight seems to be going the wrong way, i.e. a totally different path
It sounds like something terrible is happening inside the cockpit
Someone amongst the passengers is trying to hijack the flight using a weapon, whether chemical, gun or bomb etc.

What should I do?

Best Answer

I think there's probably not much you can do:

If you have a mobile phone, you can always try to contact someone, but it seems the chances of having network coverage are rather slim. You could hope that whoever took over the plane forgot to shut down the in-flight phones and call somebody with those.
Your chances of disturbing the pilot when he is in the cockpit is rather low. Entering the cockpit is not that easy. If you could somehow depressurize the cabin (by crashing a window maybe), you could theoretically force the pilot to go to lower altitude as even his oxygen mask won't last forever (I assume). I'm not sure if it's possible to break a window and it would be suicide mission as your oxygen will be depleted first but at least the chances of somebody on the ground noticing will be higher. (Not sure if that would actually work).

So I think overall there's nothing much you can do. I'd guess you just have to buckle up and hope that you survive.

If you know that something bad is going to happen, you could always record what's happening in the cabin or write it down in the hope that if they find it in the wreckage, it will help to reconstruct what happened. Of course helping the investigation into the incident might not be the first thing on your mind when you are about to going to crash.

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What is it called when a pilot gets disoriented?

Spatial disorientation is defined as the inability of a pilot to correctly interpret aircraft attitude, altitude or airspeed in relation to the Earth or other points of reference.

What causes a pilot to become disoriented?

The reason a pilot can be unaware of such a gradual turn is that human exposure to a rotational acceleration of 2 degrees per sec- ond or lower is below the detection thresh- old of the semicircular canals.

Do pilots make mistakes?

Some pilots say they're making mistakes after returning to the air for the first time in months. Examples include missing the correct altitude and switching off the wrong engine. A Lufthansa pilot told Bloomberg it was a "critical situation."

How do pilots know which direction to fly?

Pilots rely heavily on computerised controls and with the assistance of the autopilot and the flight management computer, steer the plane along their planned route. They are monitored by air traffic control stations they pass along the way.

How Pilots Find Their Way in the Sky | CITY IN THE SKY | PBS

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Images: Rhys Abel, Andrea Piacquadio, Andrea Piacquadio, Andrea Piacquadio