The Garmin Emergency Autoland is a groundbreaking new feature currently fitted to five aircraft types that allow these aircraft to land themselves in the event of pilot incapacitation. The types currently fitted with it are the Piper M600 SLS, Cirrus Vision Jet, Daher TBM 940, Daher TBM 960 and the King Air 200. The system can be activated automatically in the event of no response over a prolonged period of time by the pilot (e.g. following a cabin depressurisation) or it can be activated by a passenger in the event of a pilot incapacitation.
Once activated, the system will automatically select a suitable airport to divert to and start routing towards the airport. It will take into account the runway direction, length, type of approach and reported weather. At the same time, it will automatically squawk 7700 while transmitting its intentions on COMM 1 and 121.500 MHz. It will switch to the tower frequency and transmit its intentions when within a predetermined range. The system can automatically extend flaps and gear and in most models, once stopped on the runway it can shut down the aircraft. During this time, the PFD and Navigation Display are used to display a safety demo to the passengers.
This technology is a huge leap forward in aviation, which generally lags significantly behind consumer tech due to the barriers and delays working through the certification process. Indeed many manufacturers opt not to certify equipment due to the large costs involved.
While providing lifesaving safety enhancements, one of the drawbacks of the Emergency Autoland System is that it cannot interact with ATC or respond to other aircraft in the vicinity (e.g. a TCAS RA). To raise awareness of the Autoland System among Air Traffic Controllers and Pilots, the UK CAA has published a Safety Notice to explain the system. The information in the Safety Notice is equally applicable to Irish ATCOs and pilots although there are few Irish airports that meet the requirements to be selected by the system. 800 aircraft are currently fitted with the system but it has never been activated outside of manufacturer testing.
A link to the safety notice is available here but perhaps take a look at the video below to see the true capability of this system.
