Washington ( CNN ) The flight voice recorder aboard Germanwings Flight 9525 reportedly captured blaring cockpit alarms , warning co-pilot Andreas Lubitz to `` pull up '' and that `` terrain '' was ahead . But that was not enough to stop the aircraft from slamming into the French Alps . With reports that Lubitz apparently ignored those warnings , there are new calls from aviation experts to develop and deploy enhanced crash avoidance software that could take control of an aircraft away from a pilot and steer the plane to a safe altitude . The technology would work in a fashion similar to crash avoidance technology already used in automobiles . If a pilot is incapacitated or ignores audible warnings , the plane 's flight guidance software could take over and plot a course to a safe altitude‎ . In cars , these avoidance systems sometimes deploy brakes or slow a car down to a safer speed , and help maintain safe distances from other vehicles . The idea is not new . In fact , more than 10 years ago , following 9/11 , Airbus , the manufacturer of the doomed aircraft , was working to d‎evelop aircraft crash avoidance software with tech giant Honeywell -- in part to prevent jetliners from being flown into large buildings or mountains . But the project was ultimately scrapped . A spokesperson for Honeywell says the company has no plans to revive the project unless federal regulators demand it be put into cockpits or airlines ask for it . So far that has not happened . CNN also asked Airbus about the project , but the company had no comment . Former Department of Transportation Inspector General Mary Schiavo says pilots , regulators and the traveling public have , so far , not bought into claims that computers can do it better . `` For any situation where you are relieving the pilot 's control of their plane , there has been pushback not only from the pilots , but from airlines . There are some sectors that believe that ultimately the pilot must maintain overall control of the plane and that that is your best bet for a safe flight . '' However , she adds , in the case of the Germanwings crash , `` this technology , I believe , would have saved the flight . Not only would it have saved this flight and the Germanwings passengers , it would also save lives in situations where it is not a suicidal , homicidal pilot . It has implications literally for safer flight across the industry . '' Pilots ' groups point to numerous instances where a pilot 's training and perhaps unconventional thinking actually saved lives . For example , in 2009 Capt . C.B . Sullenberger crash-landed U.S. Airways flight 1549 into the Hudson River in New York , after a flock of geese was sucked into both of its engines and the A320 lost all thrust . The formal National Transportation Safety Board report on the crash said the main thing that contributed to the survivability of the accident was `` the decision-making of the flight crewmembers and their crew resource management during the accident sequence . '' In other words , when Sullenberger decided to ditch the plane in the Hudson , he saved the 150 passengers and five crew members on board . Pilots say if a computer had taken over after it sensed the plane was headed for water , the outcome could have been very different . Commercial airline pilot John Barton says there are other considerations to take into account as well . `` In systems like this ... the control can not be taken back from the aircraft . Or , indiscriminately the aircraft could be taken over on just a normal flight and they ( cockpit crew ) would n't be able to get control back . I think it is going to take a long time to operationally test this kind of technology before it is foolproof . '' He also worries that the autopilot software could be vulnerable to hackers . `` More and more people will come to know the technology . They will work on the technology and therefore there will be bad people that will be able to exploit that technology . That 's not a good thing . '' But in an incident like the Germanwings tragedy , where a pilot is being blamed for the crash , Schiavo says there must be additional safeguards and that this technology would be a start . `` Most of the major commercial jetliner crashes in the last two or three years could have been saved with an override . '' Barton says there are already plenty of safeguards in place in the United States . For example , he says , the Federal Aviation Administration rule that two people must always be in the cockpit during a flight might also have saved the Germanwings flight . That is a practice that several overseas carriers -- including Germanwings and its parent company , Lufthansa -- have now adopted . `` The solution to the problem simply is for the rest of the world globally to adhere to the standards that the United States has used forever , and that is sound hiring practices , safety and training and security practices . '' Barton says .
Autopilot could have taken control of Germanwings flight and flown plane to safe altitude . But some experts say taking control away from humans could lead to other dangers . Comment: