2012 - Electromagnetic interference: a new murderer!

Every 11 years violent storms on the surface of the Sun cause massive amounts of energy – in the form of protons and electrons – to be thrown out into space. After a few days, this energy reaches our planet, interferes with the planet's magnetic field and generates huge currents – even more in the polar regions. These induced currents can subsequently induce massive surges in (power distribution) transmission lines, damaging transformers and causing high-amplitude harmonics.

With jet airliners coming to depend ever more heavily on electronic systems for vital functions, their vulnerability to EMI poses a potentially lethal threat to air safety. The uniformity of the region in which the accidents occurred suggests that the region itself - the environment external to the (air)plane - should be included among the causes to be investigated.

EMI could be another lurking surprise. For this reason alone, perhaps it should be included in the structured process that is part of every accident investigation. Aircraft maintenance, atmospheric weather (windshear, icing, fog, etc.), and other factors routinely are examined in detail, even if their relationship to the initially suspected probable cause is problematic.

Perhaps EMI should be considered as a form of "electronic weather." Three aspects pertain: "space weather," such as the 11-year sunspot cycle, at its peak now, that could affect navigation systems and radios; EMI from ground and airborne sources; and finally, interference from portable electronic devices carried by passengers in the cabin. In all three cases, the literature is growing about unwanted electrical interference and system malfunctions. Heaven forbid that EMI should someday bring down an inadequately shielded "electrified" jet loaded with passengers (or has it already?), but the industry has been caught off guard in other areas. The Air France crash had again raised fears about the aircraft's susceptibility to electromagnetic interference. "It was flying through or close to a thunderstorm and lightning. The high static charge from thunderstorm clouds can cause electromagnetic interference. It could be that if the A330 is more vulnerable to electromagnetic interference, it could have caused the pilots to lose control of the aircraft during severe turbulence." The black box would only emit signals for 30 days. But the Atlantic search area between the coasts of Brazil and Africa remains vast and depths range from 3,000 to 6,000 meters, with currents so strong that the box might never be found. A month after the Air France crash, a Yemeni airliner with 153 people on board has crashed in the Indian Ocean near the Comoros islands, northwest of Madagascar.

Science has made humans to live longer. But more scientific development is damaging nature and also becoming responsible for more deaths. A 1994 NASA study contains an appendix in which individual pilots summarize incidents caused by electromagnetic interference.  How does an autopilot disconnect in situations of electromagnetic interference? NASA researchers are pointing out that the disconnecting of the autopilot, whether executed by the autopilot itself or by the real pilot, becomes necessary to the plane's survival (since the autopilot is starting to put the plane on a disastrous course). But, at the same time, that act of disconnecting is itself an especially hazardous event. Up to that moment, the autopilot has been receiving false instructions (such as an adjustment to the elevators, or a deflection of the rudder) but if the errant instruction is incompatible with safe flying, the autopilot will simultaneously start compensating for the false command with balancing counteractions. When suddenly the autopilot is turned off, the human pilots are abruptly confronted with a set of events that may be confusing, and there may not be time either to correct or to undo the compensatory settings on other control surfaces.

Conclusion: flying becomes more and more dangerous. The mystery of what is about to happen in 2012 keeps growing and we all start to be confronted with it more and more in every day life.  How much longer can governments keep its people in the unknown?