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2 May, 2023

Senior Aussie pilot warns about ‘dangerous’ upcoming aviation trend

Empty airport at sunset, 3D generated image, generic location.

By James Harrison

As the world of aviation returns to its former state, technological progressions continue in the world of commercial flying.

Some of which have not rubbed everyone the right way. And discussing this is Tony Lucas, the president of the Australia and International Pilots Association, who recently penned an opinion piece with Sky News about his concerns.

Lucas prefaced his worries by outlining the conditions of a flight he recently went on to Canada.

“On my flight to Canada, there will always be two well-rested and well-trained pilots on the flight deck, working as a team to get their passengers and crew to their destination,” Lucas wrote.

“This is the only safe way to fly – but there is a dangerous push underway by some airlines and manufacturers for single-pilot flights, perhaps by as early as 2027.”

The aviation big wig said he wouldn’t want his family travelling on a flight flown by one pilot. But why?

“Flying is the safest mode of transportation because airliners have what we call redundancy built in all over,” Lucas wrote.

“They have at least two engines, multiple electric and hydraulic systems, multiple flight management computers, and, crucially, at least two pilots. This means that if one pilot has a medical episode and is incapacitated – or simply needs to use the bathroom – the other can safely fly the plane.

“Having two pilots also makes emergencies easier to handle. When things go wrong at 35,000 feet and 950 km/h, they go wrong fairly quickly. There are multiple examples where two (or more) pilots have worked together to avert disaster.”

President of the Australia and International Pilots Association Tony Lucas (Source: LinkedIn/Tony Lucas)

Lucas reminded readers of the flight that landed in the Hudson River in 2009 when the two pilots guided their Airbus A320 after it ran into a flock of birds. He commended the two pilots’ team work as they each performed different tasks during the emergency.

This senior flyer then got to the crux of the issue: “The bean-counters and bureaucrats” encouraging single-pilot flights who “don’t spend their working lives flying as part of a well trained flight deck crew.”

But what about the ever-improving autopilot technology to supplement the other pilot(s)?

Lucas wrote that autopilot helps fly the plane and “in many ways it is nothing more than a fancy cruise control,” while a flight needs two human pilots to make safety critical decisions. Such as when a tropical storm is en-route and the pilots need to navigate a safe path through it or in the case of an emergency landing and the pilots need to decide on the safest landing spot, Lucas argues.

The pilot also highlighted that computer systems are prone to glitching and the source of the issue could often have to be overwritten by the pilots.

“When some of the sharpest minds in the world are struggling to make autonomous cars a safe reality, why on earth should we entrust our lives to a computer in the sky?” Lucas asks.

“Coasting to a stop on the side of the road is not one of our available options.”

He also argued that the experience more junior pilots receive when sitting next to their senior counterparts and how pivotal this is to the process of becoming a better pilot.

“The knowledge I learned from my seniors during my younger years on the flight deck has helped me become the Training Captain I am today.

“I am concerned that future pilots won’t have this opportunity for knowledge transfer.”

Another issue that Lucas sites is pilot fatigue and the long term impact this has on mental health and he outlined that the perceived financial benefits of reducing the number of pilots is not as good as airlines may think.

“Pilots’ wages only make up a tiny fraction of the cost of your airline ticket, with most of the price going towards fuel, taxes and profits,” Lucas said.

“In fact single-pilot operations could actually make commercial airlines less viable because fewer passengers may fly when safety is reduced by removing the second pilot.”

Lucas concludes by saying that he will be pushing hard to prevent single-pilot airlines from ever taking off.

Featured Image: Empty airport at sunset, 3D generated image, generic location (iStock/gremlin)

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Australia and International Pilots Association Single pilot Tony Lucas