Proposal to Remove Pilots from the Flight Deck is Dangerous

06.08.2024 - 19:20 / travelpulse.com / North America / Guest Author

You’re flying 34,000 feet over the Atlantic, finally taking that dream trip to Europe. You’re relaxed, considering reading the book you brought or watching that movie you never got around to seeing. Then you hear a commotion and realize there is an issue with the flight. 

Your flight attendants shout safety directions and ask passengers to return to their seats and buckle up. Safety notification lights illuminate. Then, your mind zeroes into who is at the plane’s controls. Your assumption would be that two pilots are at the helm, working together to resolve the issue. But what if only one pilot was on the flight deck? Would your anxiety level increase?

The fact is, if some in the air travel industry have their way, fliers may no longer be able to count on that two-pilot assumption.

Already, airplane manufacturer Airbus is pushing to allow one pilot to rest while the other flies during the cruise portion of a flight, something the European version of the FAA is unnecessarily considering as it finishes its evaluation of the proposal this summer. The ripple effects and global implications of permitting such a change to operating procedures are significant. 

There’s a reason — many reasons, actually — why two pilots are essential at all times.

Moving to a single pilot, even for just part of a flight, would upend decades of aviation safety standards that make flying the safest mode of transportation. It would create a dangerous precedent, increase pressure on U.S. regulators to follow suit, and lead both down a slippery slope to one day allow for a single pilot on the flight deck at all times.

All this talk comes at a time when air travel, near misses and alarming incidents of airplane manufacturing and maintenance defects are all on the rise.

As president of the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA), the world’s largest airline pilot union, I represent more than 78,000 airline pilots in the United States and Canada. My colleagues and I are intimately aware that it takes two pilots at the controls at all times to ensure a safe flight — a fact that’s backed up by more than a decade’s worth of research by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Furthermore, a surveycommissioned by ALPA shows nearly 80% of U.S. adults say remotely operated planes would make them feel less safe flying, and a significant majority say they would never feel comfortable flying without two pilots on the flight deck.

Single pilot proposals unnecessarily gamble with air safety and are only in play because of a push for more profit. On long-haul flights, airlines would reduce costs by eliminating the need for more than two pilots, claiming that this rotation allows for rest periods. But that can be accomplished in other ways,