Are there two pilots on the plane? Soon it will be over and this is making the specialists mad.

News JVTech Are there two pilots on the plane? Soon it will be over and this is making the specialists mad.

If you have ever flown at least once, you know this: on board there is a captain and a co-pilot. These two qualified pilots are responsible for taking the plane to its destination, and iThey are there to support each other : there is always at least one pilot in the cabin.

But some aircraft manufacturers, as well as some airlines, have decided to lobby to try to change this: They would like to eventually have only one pilot present in the cockpit at all times.. The European Union Aviation Safety Agency has decided to examine this project, named “extended minimum crew operation proposal”. Concretely, this would involve removing one of the two pilots present in the cockpit during the cruise phase.

The well-being of the crew at the expense of safety?

The proposal considers thatsuch a choice would allow the crew to benefit from a better balance between work and rest during flights. According to manufacturers, such as Airbus, the technologies that are now on board aircraft are sufficient to ensure flight safety even with only one human pilot in the cockpit.

An opinion that the European Cockpit Association does not share at all. The latter, which brings together 40,000 airline pilots from 33 countries, believes that such a choice represents “a bet on passenger safety”. It recently led a campaign in certain airports with posters depicting toilets in a cockpit with a threatening sky: “Can you handle two emergencies at the same time?” »we can read there.

The shocking slogan “One means none” is also evocative of the idea: for the ECA, a single pilot in a cockpit is useless. “Airplanes, especially large commercial aircraft, require multiple pilots to fly safely. Flight safety relies on a team of pilots who share tasks and work together”explain the site put online for the occasion.

An economic question (obviously)

The European Union Aviation Safety Agency is still working on the subject, which is not yet one in the United States. But it could become one soon, because the objective, both for airliner manufacturers and for airlines, the idea would be to reduce the operational costs of flightswithout lowering the prices of plane tickets.

But resistance is already being organized in the United States where the local equivalent of the ECA, the Air Line Pilots Association, has already announced its support for the European organization. It is therefore likely that a standoff will ensue between pilots and airlines with the safety of flights and their passengers in the sights.