Airlines Push for Single Pilot Flights Despite Safety Fears

“Airlines and regulators are pushing to have just one pilot in the cockpit of passenger jets instead of two,” Bloomberg reports.

“It would lower costs and ease pressure from crew shortages, but placing such responsibility on a single person at the controls is unsettling for some.”

You think?

With the increased number of pilot collapses in recent months, airlines and regulators are throwing gasoline on the fire started by the COVID-19 jab rollout.

How long before a 747 with 200+ passengers crashes due to a pilot medical emergency?

Airlines Move To Have One Pilot, Not Two, In Cost-Cutting Solution 🤯

I mean what could go wrong?

A pilot recently passed out and died during flight, the copilot safely landed the plane.
Let’s just continue to make decisions that make zero sense https://t.co/AiKEOql6VU

— Jess (@MeetJess) November 23, 2022

Would you fly on a plane with just one pilot?

Airlines and regulators are pushing to have just a single pilot in passenger jets instead of two https://t.co/9ztKYDCOfB

— Bloomberg (@business) November 25, 2022

More details about this catastrophically stupid idea from Bloomberg:

Over 40 countries including Germany, the U.K. and New Zealand have asked the United Nations body that sets aviation standards to help make single-pilot flights a safe reality. The European Union Aviation Safety Agency has also been working with planemakers to determine how solo flights would operate and preparing rules to oversee them. EASA said such services could start in 2027.

The plan doesn’t sit well with pilots. It’s a hard sell for passengers, too.

Tony Lucas, an Airbus SE A330 captain for Qantas Airways and president of the Australian & International Pilots Association, is concerned that a lone pilot might be overwhelmed by an emergency before anyone else has time to reach the cockpit to help.

“The people going down this route aren’t the people who fly jets every day,” Lucas said. “When things go awry, they go awry fairly quickly.”

For example, a regional jet pilot reportedly collapsed and was pronounced dead shortly after takeoff on a flight from Chicago O’Hare International Airport to Columbus, Ohio.

Pilot of Boeing Aircraft Suddenly Dies During Flight

From Forbes:

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An additional issue is that there are fewer opportunities for junior crew members to learn from experienced pilots if everyone flies alone.

The EUSA is running a safety risk assessment on single-pilot operations, to find out what rules would need to be in place to manage issues such as fatigue and comfort breaks.

A statement by the EASA in January 2021 stated that there would also need to be advanced autonomous systems in place to fly the aircraft unmanned should the crew become incapacitated.

In one sense, this is just a logical conclusion to the increasing automation that has been happening in the aviation industry for decades. In the 1950s, there would have been a captain, a co-pilot, a flight engineer, a navigator and a radio operator all in the cockpit.

If a single pilot operating a flight experiences a medical emergency, then what's the response?

Just allow the plane full of passengers to nosedive to the ground or water?