Patent ID: 8255098

Claim:
A flight control system, comprising: a plurality of subsystems cooperatively configured to: monitor operations of an aircraft that is controlled by at least one onboard pilot, the monitored operations including at least one of health of the aircraft, activity of the at least one onboard pilot, and progress of a mission objective; determine an event based on an anomaly of one of the monitored operations, the event to initiate a subsequent fully automated control of the aircraft; receive an input from the at least one onboard pilot of the aircraft, the input in response to the event and used by the flight control system when implementing the subsequent fully automated control of the aircraft, wherein the input is a selection of one of a plurality landing sites for the aircraft; and engage in control of the aircraft by performing fully automated control of the aircraft based at least in part on the input, the fully automated control to occur with an omission of additional inputs from the at least one onboard pilot.