Hero Qantas captain Kevin Sullivan warns on taking co-pilots out of cockpit
A plan by aviation regulators to allow a single pilot instead of two on commercial flights is meeting growing resistance from pilots and industry leaders.
A plan by international aviation regulators to allow a single pilot in the cockpit instead of two on commercial flights is meeting growing resistance from Australian pilots and industry leaders who fear the move could result in catastrophic air accidents.
Single pilot and “reduced crew” operations are seen by many airlines as the answer to spiralling staff costs and post-Covid crew shortages.
Proposals being explored by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) range from having only two pilots aboard long-haul flights – with one at the controls during cruising while the other rests – to a single pilot flying the whole journey.
Cathay Pacific has done extensive work with Airbus on single-pilot operations in a venture it tried to keep secret codenamed Project Connect that aims to certify its A350 jet for single-pilot operations during high-altitude cruising on passenger flights. Lufthansa has worked on a similar plan.
“Autonomous flight has the potential to deliver increased fuel savings, reduce the operating costs of airlines, and support pilots in their strategic decision-making and mission management,” Airbus says.
But pilots say the proposals – aimed to take effect by 2030 – are a recipe for disaster.
Former Qantas captain Kevin Sullivan, who with his co-pilots, saved 300 passengers after catastrophic automation failures aboard an Airbus A330, says a litany of aircraft accidents and pilot incapacitation incidents “confirm the folly of this cost-saving ploy”.
“Automation is an aid to pilots, not a replacement for pilots,” Captain Sullivan said.
“It is certainly not an enhancement to safe operation, especially if the automated functions of the aircraft are denied to the pilot through malfunction and/ or sensor degradation.”
QF72 was en route from Singapore to Perth on October 7, 2008, when one of the aircraft’s on-board computers went rogue off the West Australian coast and refused to let Captain Sullivan control the plane, twice sending the aircraft into a violent nosedive, plunging thousands of feet in just a few seconds.
“We were basically fighting for our lives at that point,” the former US Navy fighter pilot recalled.
More than a dozen passengers were severely injured, some knocked unconscious, others with spinal injuries and broken bones, but Captain Sullivan and two co-pilots were eventually able to regain some control of the crippled Airbus and make a forced landing on a desert air strip in Learmonth, north of Coral Bay.
“Three experienced pilots were close to being overwhelmed by cascading failures, computer-generated jet upsets and loss of many automated systems, degrading the operation of the Airbus A330 involved to that of a Cessna 150,” the ex-Top Gun said.
“When everything’s working, it’s fine. But when it goes crazy, you want one pilot to deal with that?
“In this knife fight with the computers and flight envelope protection modes, the pilots prevailed – but if they’re not there, who’s going to save the day?”
Captain Sullivan also points out that the cockpit will have to be completely redesigned to allow a toilet and perhaps even sleeping area, as these are currently located in the cabin where it may be difficult or impossible for an alternate pilot to return to the flight deck in a sudden emergency.
“You bring in pilots who have been resting, and expect them to immediately switch into: ‘I know exactly what’s going on’, but that takes time.”
Captain Sullivan – now retired – is leading the charge by Australian pilots to resist the single-pilot model, with one recent blog post attracting vocal support from dozens of fellow pilots.
Another former Qantas captain described the proposal as “utterly insane” noting that “when it gets busy in the cockpit, two expert pilots can be working at 110 per cent capacity, and even that’s with nothing significant “broken”.
“It’s an asinine idea promoted by people with no clue.
“Would I, or anyone I know, set foot on such a plane? Not a snowball’s chance in hell.”
Other aviation experts have warned of the increased risk of pilot suicide, recalling Germanwings flight 9525 that crashed in 2015, killing all 150 on board, after co-pilot Andreas Lubitz waited for the captain to leave the cockpit of the Airbus A320-21, locked the door, and flew into the side of a mountain.
But aviation regulators are pushing ahead with the proposals. In a working paper released in August, EASA asked the aviation standards body, the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) to consider “the technical feasibility of extended minimum crew operations … ultimately leading to single-pilot operations”.
“Moving from two pilots to one must be accompanied by compensatory measures that are embedded into both the design and operation of aircraft,” EASA says, “provided the safety level of today’s two-pilot operation is maintained or even enhanced.
“Real-time monitoring of pilot alertness and performance may be required in order to identify fatigue or incapacitation without delay.” EASA has made no secret of its own position on the proposals. “Typically on long-haul flights when you’re at cruise altitude there’s very little happening in the cockpit,” EASA executive director Patrick Ky said two years ago.
“It makes sense to say OK, instead of having two in the cockpit, we can have one in the cockpit, the other one taking a rest, provided we’re implementing technical solutions which make sure that if the single one falls asleep or has any problem, there won’t be any unsafe conditions.”
Single-pilot operations are “the unavoidable challenge”, Cathay Pacific’s Chris Kempis told an IATA Safety Conference last year, citing aviation’s history of reducing cockpit personnel via automation, while acknowledging that it was “many, many times more complex” than going from three pilots to two.
The first trials of single-pilot operations are expected to begin with non-passenger cargo aircraft.
Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce has not ruled out single-pilot operations, but says the airline is “certainly not pushing” to adopt them, pointing to the QF32 accident in which an engine on a Qantas A380 exploded mid-air in 2010.
In that case, Captain Richard de Crespigny and four other pilots – including two check captains – managed to return to Singapore Changi Airport for a safe landing.
Captain De Crespigny says “sanity is starting to return” with Mr Joyce’s comments, but noted in a recent blog post: “I’m alarmed and dismayed that EASA applied a target date of 2030.
“If EASA understood the challenges the five pilots faced during QF32, then it would not think about single pilot operations for this or the next decade.”
A spokesman for Cathay Pacific told The Australian: “This is a long-term commitment to a project that is still very much under development. We are one of a number of airlines engaging with Original Equipment Manufacturers in the development of new technologies, including the concept of reduced crew operations.
“All of the aircraft in our existing fleet are certified to operate with a minimum of two pilots on board and that there is no plan to reduce that number, even if the RCO concept is approved and introduced in the future.”
An Airbus spokesman confirmed the company was “engaged in studies on operational patterns for flight crew on long-range flights ... based on a minimum of two operating crew per flight”.
The study would assess the feasibility of reducing today’s requirement for three pilots for flights of eight hours and above to two pilots, but not one, the spokesman said.
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