Qantas flight QF144 at Sydney Airport after emergency services were put on standby. Photo / Getty
Pilots say an engine failure on a Qantas flight out of Auckland is an example of why any move to a solo pilot would be a bad idea.
Investigations are continuing into why a Qantas Boeing 737 last week had to shut down one of its two engines mid-Tasman and initially declare a Mayday. The emergency was downgraded and the aircraft landed safely in Sydney but passengers reported hearing a loud bang before the plane lost altitude.
This country’s Civil Aviation Authority supports an international study into “optimised crew/single-pilot operations”, although it says no decisions have been made on whether such operations would be permitted in, or to and from New Zealand.
New Zealand Air Line Pilots Association (NZALPA) president Andrew Ridling says sole pilots are a bad idea and the problems dealt with by crew on QF144 last Wednesday proves it.
“The enviable safety record and the culture of aviation has been based on having properly rested and well-trained pilots at the controls at all phases of flight,” said Ridling.
During last week’s emergency, one of the pilots would have been flying the plane while the other would have been working through checklists, dealing with communications and co-ordinating to make sure the right people were doing the right jobs, he said.
“As an industry, we don’t have the technology to take over from two humans just yet - I don’t think the travelling public would accept that anyway,” said Ridling.
“I think technology will catch up but it’s not going to be there in my career or my lifetime. It’s so far away and you do need those two pilots well-rested and well-trained. Qantas (QF144) is a reminder of this.”
Another pilots group says disasters which have been averted – such as the “Miracle on the Hudson”, when a plane was successfully ditched in the water in New York – proved the need for two pilots.
The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has suggested that single-pilot flights could be a reality by 2027.
EASA is commissioning research looking at the risks and mitigation measures, while the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), an agency of the United Nations, is calling for more information on the risks and safety shortfalls before any changes are made to its technical standards for international civil aviation. New Zealand’s CAA supports that study but late last year said it was not adopting a final position on the merits (or otherwise) of single and reduced crew.
“This is an important paper as regulators such as ourselves must be able to assess and ensure the safety of future technological developments in this area prior to any final decisions,” the authority said.
But NZALPA says there are all sorts of potential risks that need to be considered.
“As well as the greater workload, there would be enormous pressure on a single pilot to get everything right. We are all human, and sometimes we make mistakes. If there is no one sitting alongside to pick those up, then obviously there is an increased risk of an error leading to a serious incident,” Ridling has said.
Junior pilots would also miss out on the opportunity to work alongside senior colleagues – an important part of ongoing training.
“The biggest question of all is how keen would passengers be to get on a plane with just one pilot in command? We’ve all seen stories of pilots experiencing mid-flight medical events, the rogue pilot who shut his captain out of the cockpit and crashed the plane, and equipment malfunctions that have led to planes crashing within just minutes.”
Professor Doug Drury, head of aviation at Central Queensland University, has been in the industry for more than 40 years.
He says aviation is in an ‘‘extreme growth” period on a scale that he has not seen before.
“That being said, the industry has not planned very well for contingencies to deal with pilot shortages. It has been a topic of discussion for years, which prompted Boeing and Airbus to look at the possibility of single-pilot ops.”
Boeing had a model where one first officer sits in a ground base operations centre and is the co-pilot on several flights at once.
“Another aspect driving this future dilemma discussion is the possibility that this is the moment for the industry to begin the transition to fully autonomous aircraft. It will continue for some time, but for now the current technology is designed for two-pilot operations. Pilots spend a great deal of time in training to manage all known emergencies.”
Drury told the Herald that his research into human factors psychology looked at how a single event can cause one or both pilots to lose situational awareness as they try to figure out what the problem is.
These situations require prompt attention to the emergency and when an aircraft is travelling at high altitude and high speed it can cause a very high workload for one person.
In most emergency situations, the captain will fly the aircraft and the first officer will run the quick reference handbook (QRH) procedures.
There may be multiple phases in the process that will require analysis of the situation by both pilots to see if the problem has been fixed. Sometimes there are no emergency procedures for the events creating the emergency that has happened and this may require the blending of several emergency procedures together to find the solution. For this situation, only the crew’s training and experience will find the solution, he said.
North America’s Air Line Pilots Association opposes any move to single pilots and cites examples where a crew of at least two pilots was necessary to avert disaster. Among them:
The airline sold its last slots at Heathrow in 2020.