In the famous so called race to the bottom in the airline industry, some are looking for a cost reduction race, while others, more concerned with flight safety, are worried for good reason.
The latest masterpiece from airlines and legislators, not from people who know what goes on in the cockpit, is the move for single pilot operation. To cut cost.
Consequently IFALPA (International Federation of Air Line Pilots’ Association), ECA (European Cockpit Association) and ALPA (Air Line Pilot Association), representing more than a quarter of a million pilots, finds the proposal waste basket material. For many a good reason.
The reasons are so many and so obvious for anyone who has spent more than one day in front of the cockpit door, and hopefully the above mentioned joint forces can persuade ICAO to not even think about proceeding along this route.
Behind the move is the belief that new technology and support from the ground should enable single pilot operation, but the united opinion from the pilot community is that profit is prioritized over safety. Not the first time, but this time some kind of record.
Rather than listing arguments for and against something that might someday in the future be looked upon as something natural, one can establish that many decades will pass before that future is upon us, and that the worlds biggest disaster, where 582 people lost their lives on the island of Tenerife, could have been averted, had the captain listened to one of his crew members in doubt whether or not they were cleared for take-off. But the captain had a different mindset.
IT WAS A ONE MAN SHOW
A lawyer would say; I rest my case.
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