The leading pilots’ union accuses the EU group of putting profits over safety as officials consider cutting the minimum number of crew required to work on commercial aircraft, according to The Guardian.
The reduction of pilots has been proposed by aircraft manufacturers Airbus and Dassault, but they declined to comment on the situation despite requests. The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), for its part, commented on the situation, focusing on the issue of safety:
For EASA, the overriding consideration is that safety must not be compromised. Operations must therefore be demonstrably at least as safe as the current two-pilot operations are today to gain approval.
The agency is considering reducing the minimum number of pilots required for commercial aircraft from two to one, jeopardising overall safety standards. EASA is studying the safety of extended minimum crew operations (eMCO), where one pilot leaves the cockpit to rest during long flights, leaving one pilot at the helm. eMCO would eliminate the standard where there are currently three pilots in the cockpit so that pilots can take turns to rest (only during long flights).
“Bear in mind, if you go to a one-man cockpit, you might as well go to a zero-man cockpit. Because it all needs to cater for the eventuality that this one guy just ate a bad oyster and is incapacitated and the aeroplane has to take over. So one pilot or zero pilot is effectively the same thing,” according to Christian Scherer, CEO of Airbus’ commercial aviation business.
The report, published in June by the union, said there were concerns about efforts to reduce the number of pilots in the cockpit of commercial aircraft, warning of no substitute for the safety benefits of having at least two pilots in the cockpit at all times.
“This threat is not something that is 10, 15, 20 years away. It’s something that, quietly, Airbus, has been working on. It’s not what they are marketing it to be. The US has the safest aviation record in the world. We need to improve the standard for everybody, not just go to the lowest common denominator,” according to Captain James Ambrosi, president of the Air Line Pilots Association, which represents more than 78,000 pilots in the United States and Canada.
The Air Line Pilots Association, which recently defeated efforts to raise the retirement age for pilots from 65 to 67, regards the potential reduction in the number of pilots in the cockpit as a serious new threat to flight safety. Single-pilot flights will also increase workload and fatigue, as well as the risks associated with pilot incapacitation.
Nonetheless, the agency stated no clear timeframe for the introduction of the pilot reduction operation. The possible fall in the number of pilots will not occur until at least 2027, but may have global implications and affect flights to and from Europe and the rest of the aviation industry.
The same tension lies in the railway industry over reducing the number of crew members from two to one. For example, in East Palestine, Ohio, where the rail industry suffered an explosive fire last year due to a derailed train, unions continue to oppose the reduction in force. The rail industry is currently suing the US Department of Transportation because it previously gave final approval to a rule first proposed by the Obama administration requiring a minimum of two crews on rail freight shipments in the United States.
East Palestine was a perfect example of why and how two crews are necessary because of how they worked together to make sure the disaster wasn’t worse. (…) To take the profit motives into account as seriously as you do the safety motives, I think, would be really foolish, according to Greg Regan, president of the AFL-CIO’s TTD.
