Hard prison time is no answer for "kids playing with toys" - and the Feds will prove that they will not discriminate. A witch hunt at best, the answer is to sock em with heavy $$ fines and lengthy probation.
MH370/ like AF447 and Colgan 3407 - growing reasons why the next technological advancement of large transport aircraft will be to place the FO as ground based. Full duel human control of flight preserved - but one in the air/ and one on the ground.
Well OK that will do, but which freight outfits still have three man crews? Not UPS / Fed Ex use the MD-10's (two man converted). The DC-8's are gone/ no more L-1011's or B-742's/ cant imagine B-727's at todays fuel costs/ maybe Evrett DC-6 in Alaska. . . . Where are the three man airplanes today (other than pt.91 corporate /ie Sands Casino B-747sp)?
The City and Port Authority should acquire/ share this property as a NYC welcome center. A 1964 Worlds Fair 1/24th scale model of NYC could be relocated there from Queens as an added attraction. Rent-able sleep modules with showers available for the 6 hr itinerant traveller. A golden age aviation museum with a restored TWA B-707 parked at a gate. lots of ideas for this landmark, all to enhance JFK and NYC. This building must be preserved!
Thales Avionics (Airbus avionic supplier) is now working on just that. It's called Cockpit 3.0 - Near future airplanes will still have a two pilot crew, but the FO will be ground base. Two in control - 1 inflight and 1 on the ground,
http://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/farnborough-air-show/2010-07-18/next-gen-cockpits-will-be-single-pilot-posits-thales
The sad story here is more about what a police state we have become. This poor, bored, minimum wage airplane cleaner has been arraigned at a bail amount ($1 million) larger than that of an armed rapist. His crime of filling 16oz water bottles with discarded frozen scraps of Co2 is little more than that of assault by water pistol. Can't airport police differentiate between those of real danger to society? . . . At most, this idiot should simply be fired and sent down the road. I sure feel much safer and protected in knowing that such a dumb bastard is wasting much needed space and resources in our overcrowded jails.
