With the ongoing severe pilot shortage predicted to climb\nclose to 260,000 over the next decade, some of the big industry names have\nproposed a way to curb the issue. One-pilot cockpit bid has been making waves\nacross the industry recently, both European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA)\nand United States\u2019 Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) launching\ninvestigations on the topic. This raises a vital question if moving away from a\ntwo-pilot structure is the right solution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The norm of having two pilots, the captain and the first\nofficer, on board the commercial aircraft has been in place for around 30\nyears. Such a structure \u2013 moving from five pilots in a cockpit \u2013 was possible\nwith the advancements in radio communication, navigation systems and on-board\nmonitoring tools, cutting the need for the flight engineer, the navigator, and\na radio operator to be on board. However, the proposed move from two to one\npilot on board is most likely to be much more difficult, introducing several\nsafety risks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere are numerous concerns that come with such structural\nchange,\u201d observes Alison Dsouza, Director of Aerviva Aviation Consultancy, a\nDubai-based international consultancy, specializing in aviation recruitment and\ndocument management. \u201cThe two pilots on board take on vital roles during all\nstages of a flight \u2013 one pilot is actively flying the plane, while the other is\nmonitoring instrumentation, managing the checklist, and communication with the\nair control tower. You can see how without the co-pilot the flight becomes too\nmuch to handle for one pilot, even a very experienced one.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dsouza further explains that a single pilot could go under\nimmense stress if an emergency is present and with no backup on board this\ncould become disastrous. It is an exceedingly high psychological barrier for a\nlone pilot to climb over, as they won\u2019t have anyone else to rely on, which\ncould have disastrous consequences. Additionally, it also means increased\nworking hours and responsibilities, and even steeper requirements for pilots to\nqualify.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
EASA has, too, recently concluded in the EASA Safety Risk\nAssessment Framework that single-pilot commercial operations by 2023 are deemed\nunrealistic, stating that solo flying requires a safety equivalent to existing\noperations and automation hasn\u2019t advanced that far ahead to support the\nimplementation. However, the Agency did not rule out that by 2027 some phases\nof the flight would have one pilot in the cockpit. Dsouza agrees only with the\nformer that while innovative technologies have been introduced, replacing the\nexperience and level of safety of a co-pilot is very unlikely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere are several examples from the last couple of decades\nwhere only by having two well experienced pilots helped avoid some of the\nbiggest aviation catastrophes, like the 2009 Hudson River incident. Two heads\nare always better than one in such a responsible and high-stakes career like\ncommercial airline pilot, and no current technology could compensate that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, the probability of a single pilot operations isn\u2019t\na new dilemma. The issue of pilot fatigue has been raised by the European\nCockpit Association as early as 2012. Over 50% of then-surveyed pilots said to\nhave experienced fatigue that impaired their ability to perform well while on\nflight duty. 93% of pilots in Denmark said they had to cope with fatigue while\nin a cockpit, Germany following close behind with 92%, and Sweden with 89%.\nFatigue has been cited as a main factor in several accidents and serious\nincidents since.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The public opinion is, too, opposing single pilot\noperations. Air Line Pilots Association\u2019s (ALPA) conducted survey in 2019 found\nthat as much as 85% of travelers would feel uncomfortable on a flight without\ntwo pilots, not to mention fully automated flights. Today\u2019s opinion on the\nmatter has not changed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As the aviation industry tries to handle the global pilot\nshortage issue, daring propositions like the one-pilot cockpit idea is not a\nrisk worth taking right now, especially considering the dangers single pilot\noperations carry. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
With the ongoing severe pilot shortage predicted to climb close to 260,000 over the next decade, some of the big industry names have proposed a way to curb the issue. One-pilot cockpit bid has been making waves across the industry recently, both European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and United States\u2019 Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":23108,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[114],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25086","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/A350F_Etihad-Cargo-edit.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25086","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25086"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25086\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25087,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25086\/revisions\/25087"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}