Like many other places where lots of people gather, commercial airplanes, too, have cameras for security and monitoring purposes, both inside and out.
Depending on where you live and how you go about your life, much of it may be caught on camera (even if you’re not a social media influencer). Cameras on the street, inside shopping malls and banks; traffic cameras at busy intersections; security cameras in government buildings and transportation hubs; even hidden cameras in street lights, all quietly picking up the daily minutiae of our lives. You likely expect and may have even spotted security cameras inside taxi cabs and rideshares, but one place you may not expect to find them is on an airplane – they may be unnoticed, but they are there.
Commercial and cargo planes tend to install cameras both inside and out. They are often found on the belly, tail, and near the landing gear on larger aircraft. Inside the plane, they can be found outside the cockpit door and also in bulkheads within the passenger cabin. Some planes even have cameras on the backs of seats within the in-flight entertainment systems.
Airline passengers shouldn’t fret about privacy concerns, however. Even the cameras inside planes aren’t present to snoop into your personal life, but rather for monitoring and investigative purposes. Pilots use the exterior cameras for navigation, but they can add a bit of fun to your flight as well. Passengers can often watch takeoff and landing via a live feed to their in-flight entertainment system.
