Patent ID: 6995688

Claim:
Apparatus for thwarting an attempt to hijack an aircraft, wherein said aircraft has sensing apparatus for automatically sensing a plurality of aircraft flight characteristics and said aircraft has a flight management computer system which includes modifiable microcode software, said apparatus comprising: storage means for storing a pattern of aircraft flight characteristics assumed to be unique to aircraft controlled by hijackers, detection means for periodically comparing the output of said aircraft's flight characteristic sensing apparatus with said stored pattern of assumed aircraft flight characteristics of a hijacked aircraft, control means for taking automatic control of said flight management computer when said stored pattern of assumed flight characteristics is detected and for ignoring attempts to manually control said aircraft, and emergency flight control means for causing said aircraft to automatically begin flying an emergency holding pattern, wherein said storage means, detection means, control means and emergency flight control means are each one or more microcode software subroutines which are added to said aircraft flight management computer.