Auto-GCAS Saves Unconscious F-16 Pilot—Declassified USAF Footage
Why Hacker News recommends it
Used as a concrete example of automation successfully saving an incapacitated pilot.
What it is
Declassified HUD footage of an F-16 whose unconscious pilot is saved by the Automatic Ground Collision Avoidance System. It shows the aircraft pulling out of a dive on its own.
Recommended by 0 HN commenters across 0 different months, 2017 to 2021.
What Hacker News said
Cites cbanek · 2017-05 · on “Flight QF72: What happens when automation leaves pilots powerless?”
That's an excellent point. Even if it's not the people, the stick or manual control inputs are also a point of failure. So if suddenly your stick does something strange, and your flight computer allows it (thinking human knows best) you are in big trouble. The opposite of this is the ground collision avoidance systems, where the humans are one of the weakest parts of the aircraft (due to G-loc). [this video]
Cites 21 · 2018-06 · on “If a pilot ejects, what is the autopilot programmed to do?”
Not an expert, but in military planes there are systems which kick in exactly when the plane is outside it's normal regime. Auto-GCAS Saves Unconscious F-16 Pilot: [this video]
Cites throwanem · 2021-02 · on “In two incidents, F-16 aviators were rendered unconscious, but saved by software”
Assuming we're talking about the typical example ( [this video] ) - in the HUD, altitude is the right-hand vertical tape. (The left one is airspeed.) It looks to bottom out around 4400 feet during the AGCAS recovery.