Do commercial airliners have keys?
Discussion
Not sure about the cockpit door post 9/11, but the exterior doors are not locked and at least used to use special single use tags with a unique serial number which would be broken if the door was opened. If the plane was closed up overnight the doors were tagged and the numbers logged. The ground crew in the morning would cross check the numbers to ensure the doors hadn't been tampered with.
There are no keys to operate the aeroplane. You'd generally need a decent systems knowledge to turn on battery power, open and close the right bus bar breakers and start an engine from battery or start the APU. Once engines are running there are typically AC and DC generators per engine and more bus bar shuffling to do as the batteries will drain without generators. It's not like a car whereby if the engine is running, the alternator is charging. Everything is switchable on planes to provide the necessary redundancy.
There are no keys to operate the aeroplane. You'd generally need a decent systems knowledge to turn on battery power, open and close the right bus bar breakers and start an engine from battery or start the APU. Once engines are running there are typically AC and DC generators per engine and more bus bar shuffling to do as the batteries will drain without generators. It's not like a car whereby if the engine is running, the alternator is charging. Everything is switchable on planes to provide the necessary redundancy.
Edited by jamieduff1981 on Monday 3rd November 16:04
jamieduff1981 said:
Not sure about the cockpit door post 9/11, but the exterior doors are not locked and at least used to use special single use tags with a unique serial number which would be broken if the door was opened. If the plane was closed up overnight the doors were tagged and the numbers logged. The ground crew in the morning would cross check the numbers to ensure the doors hadn't been tampered with.
There are no keys to operate the aeroplane. You'd generally need a decent systems knowledge to turn on battery power, open and close the right bus bar breakers and start an engine from battery or start the APU. Once engines are running there are typically AC and DC generators per engine and more bus bar shuffling to do as the batteries will drain without generators. It's not like a car whereby if the engine is running, the alternator is charging. Everything is switchable on planes to provide the necessary redundancy.
A couple of days on flightsim and someone could be a pro my mate is mad on flying 737's round the world on flightsim he used to follow a checklist now he does it all from memory. He gets annoyed when I try start it up as I don't do it in the correct order. There are no keys to operate the aeroplane. You'd generally need a decent systems knowledge to turn on battery power, open and close the right bus bar breakers and start an engine from battery or start the APU. Once engines are running there are typically AC and DC generators per engine and more bus bar shuffling to do as the batteries will drain without generators. It's not like a car whereby if the engine is running, the alternator is charging. Everything is switchable on planes to provide the necessary redundancy.
Edited by jamieduff1981 on Monday 3rd November 16:04
I believe you get a set of keys when you buy one but I suspect they're only ceremonial...
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2138228/Bo...
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2138228/Bo...
Ari said:
So they're all parked out there, unlocked and ready to go!? 
If your dying wish was to steal an airliner you could go all James Bond-henchman, evade security easily enough, find a plane you'd learned about on flightsim unattended or just shoot any ground crew you encountered, find a set of steps so you could reach the door, get someone to pull the steps out of the way so you could taxi away etc etc (oh and possibly give you a pushback depending on where it's parked) then start up/taxi/take-off without clearances and all that. How much fuel would be onboard would be a lottery until you got things powered up and how far you got before you were joined by a pair of QRA Typhoons is another matter, but yes, in theory, you could take an airliner.It's probably easier to just hijack one though after someone else has started it up. That's still generally frowned upon though...
jamieduff1981 said:
how far you got before you were joined by a pair of QRA Typhoons is another matter, but yes, in theory, you could take an airliner.
About 8 minutes from take off seeing as how Putin' Bears have got the RAF all rehearesed and spun up for you now. Or to put it another way, Reading. Which is still quicker than a mapped 535D on the M4, especially tonight b
d road that it is. jamieduff1981 said:
If your dying wish was to steal an airliner you could go all James Bond-henchman, evade security easily enough, find a plane you'd learned about on flightsim unattended or just shoot any ground crew you encountered, find a set of steps so you could reach the door, get someone to pull the steps out of the way so you could taxi away etc etc (oh and possibly give you a pushback depending on where it's parked) then start up/taxi/take-off without clearances and all that. How much fuel would be onboard would be a lottery until you got things powered up and how far you got before you were joined by a pair of QRA Typhoons is another matter, but yes, in theory, you could take an airliner.
It's probably easier to just hijack one though after someone else has started it up. That's still generally frowned upon though...
Or pick a 737 with airstairs and one that is parked up in position ready to taxi. A Young lad in East mids got airside climbing though the baggage system. It was covered on the news earlier this year. It's probably easier to just hijack one though after someone else has started it up. That's still generally frowned upon though...
Jamesgt said:
jamieduff1981 said:
If your dying wish was to steal an airliner you could go all James Bond-henchman, evade security easily enough, find a plane you'd learned about on flightsim unattended or just shoot any ground crew you encountered, find a set of steps so you could reach the door, get someone to pull the steps out of the way so you could taxi away etc etc (oh and possibly give you a pushback depending on where it's parked) then start up/taxi/take-off without clearances and all that. How much fuel would be onboard would be a lottery until you got things powered up and how far you got before you were joined by a pair of QRA Typhoons is another matter, but yes, in theory, you could take an airliner.
It's probably easier to just hijack one though after someone else has started it up. That's still generally frowned upon though...
Or pick a 737 with airstairs and one that is parked up in position ready to taxi. A Young lad in East mids got airside climbing though the baggage system. It was covered on the news earlier this year. It's probably easier to just hijack one though after someone else has started it up. That's still generally frowned upon though...
Gassing Station | Boats, Planes & Trains | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff