Patent ID: 7792615

Claim:
An emergency descent system for a vehicle comprising: a processor; a memory accessible by the processor, the memory including a software program executable by the processor, a terrain database and a flight plan route; a navigation system which provides the processor with positional information; a static pressure instrument, representative of a pressure altitude within the vehicle, that provides the processor with static pressure data; an automatic pilot which controls the vehicle when engaged; and a health/alertness monitoring system operatively connected to the processor for monitoring a health/alertness of a pilot operating the vehicle; wherein the emergency descent system checks the flight plan route during pre-flight to determine if a descent to a certain altitude along any flight plan segment of the flight plan route would intersect a minimum safe altitude for that flight plan segment, and if the descent to the certain altitude would intersect the minimum safe altitude, the emergency descent system checks a database for a preplanned escape route for that flight plan segment and stores the preplanned escape route for use if needed on the flight plan segment; wherein the processor monitors the static pressure instrument, the health/alertness monitoring system and the positional information, and directs the automatic pilot to decrease the vehicle altitude when the static pressure falls below a predetermined pressure.