Yeah, I’m just not going to fly period if there’s only one pilot.
Why not single-engine airliners? They would be cheaper!
But mandatory retirement isn’t until 65.
And yet drones fly half way round the world with no pilot on board. I assume that the plan is that airlines have the ability to turn their fleets into drones if the pilot goes down.
Before berating me. I think this is a terrible idea.
I imagine that is the future, but I don’t think there’s an airplane that exists today that could fly remotely like that.
Oh great, now you’ve given the airlines a new even more cost effective idea, no pilots at all in the cockpit.
And who needs flight attendants? Just put some vending machines where the pilots used to go and automatically play the safety video before the plane takes off. The passengers can deal with any issues that come up in flight. If not, the airlines can provide a call center for passengers in flight to contact to resolve issues!
Why fly the planes at all? Sell tickets, yes, but actually fly?
Hear me out: No planes, suckers!
I feel like we already did these calculations. [Checks notes]
[ Narrator ] : A new car built by my company leaves somewhere traveling at 60 mph. The rear differential locks up. The car crashes and burns with everyone trapped inside. Now, should we initiate a recall? Take the number of vehicles in the field, A, multiply by the probable rate of failure, B, multiply by the average out-of-court settlement, C. A times B times C equals X. If X is less than the cost of a recall, we don’t do one.
[ Woman on Plane ]: Are there a lot of these kinds of accidents?
[ Narrator ]: You wouldn’t believe.
[ Woman on Plane ]: Which car company do you work for?
[ Narrator ] : A major one.
While true, they also basically can’t die because the government will always save them.
There is probably a fairly good argument for nationalizing airlines tbh.
Exactly. It’s literally a thing that happened last week even.
Also this. You’ll all be dead before you can break down that door. Assuming the problem doesn’t happen on take off, in which case you’re dead before you can reach the door anyway (see the example from last week).
We see it all the time with amateur pilots. Many of whom have flight times that would qualify them to be professionals. They get disoriented, confused or distracted, because they’re human beings. Hell, imagine the pilot on a long flight needs to go to the bathroom. “Well everyone, I need to take a dump, so here’s hoping it’s an easy one and nothing happens because literally no one is at the controls for the duration of it”.
Also… in the pilot leaves to take a piss, how does that work with the door now that I think of it? Like does he just leave the flight controls open to everyone? Does he lock the door and we all pray nothing happens with the locking system while literally no one can get into the cockpit for several minutes?
You call a flight attendant up and have them sit in the cockpit while you do your thing?
We’ll simply train all the flight attendants to be able to fly / land the plan in a “pinch”. We should probably give all of them firearms as well, while we’re at it.
That seems problematic on many levels, but it could work.
Better or worst than no one in the cockpit and hoping the door doesn’t accidentally lock you out?
I could let you back into the cockpit - my sense is opening a door probably doesn’t require a ton of training, though the “shit-change” is probably the obvious time to do the terrorism.
I feel like it’s just a different form of horrible.
Between bad actors and idiots, I’d rather have a redundant professional.
Globally, a lot of them are or were.
Don’t worry, next gen flight control systems can all probably be remote flight controlled over a “secure” link to a central pilot housing gulag.
Uh… the suggested policy is stupid, but not THAT stupid. The suggestion is to have one pilot only during cruise - their will still be two pilots onboard, and both will be on duty and in the cockpit during takeoff, landing, or presumably bad weather.
The other pilot will rest during cruise, so the airlines don’t hit caps for flying hours per shift.
So if the single pilot has to go to the bathroom during the cruise, presumably he’d have the other pilot woken up and take over.
I prefer pilots with “skin in the game” in the most literal sense.
Not to worry, automation will save the day!
That creates another problem, of cumulatively exhausted pilots. That kind of “rest”, I wouldn’t want to rely on that long term to maintain pilot effectiveness over a period of months or years.