Boraxo

I don't think this is media overkill. It's not something that happens every day - in fact I can't even remember the last time this happened, particularly with a jet flying over the atlantic.

Now we know why these flights are staffed as they are, and why we should resist any attempts by management to downsize flight crews.

No disrespect intended, but everybody has to check out sometime, no doubt the guy passed doing what he loved. Better than those that perished off the coast of Brazil in a rather horrific manner.

Falcon20

No, there is no official "single pilot" checklist. I've flown B737's single pilot in full motion simulators a lot and they are no more difficult than single engine props. Obviously the systems, speeds and procedures are far more intricate in real life but it is certainly flyable and landable (is that a word?).

The hardest part of flying is the radio work (ie;navigation, communication, etc) or coping with system failures. In the single pilot case, once the lone pilot declared an emergency, he is given wide berth from other aircraft, usually kept with one controller as he gets closer to destination versus switching from center controller to approach controller, final approach control and then tower. One or two controllers handle him all the way to landing to ease the tasks of screwing with radios. Secondly, the lone pilot would program the autopilot's autoland function and the airplane is really just monitored with slight corrections by the pilot.

doobierw

Any flight over 8 hours in duration has a third pilot (relief pilot) on board. Any flight over 12 hours would have four pilots.

The relief pilot (IRO) is in the cockpit during takeoff and landing, and will also fill a shift for the Captain and the First Officer during their crew rest periods. On a flight from Brussels, each pilot would have a rest period of around two and a half hours, so the IRO would be up in the cockpit for over five hours, on shift.

It is common for the Captain to fly the leg over to Europe, and the First Officer to take the leg coming back.....or vice versa. In other words, all of our First Officers fly (and actually land!) the plane on every other leg. A first officer flying the aircraft is absolutely not the big deal the media is making it out to be. On exactly one half of your flights, the FO is the flying pilot and the Captain is the 'assisting' pilot. All Continental pilots are type rated, and as such are trained to fly the plane from the left or right seats. 737 pilots, 757/767, and 777 pilots are all typed on their respective aircraft......which isn't normally done at other airlines. It's done here due to the international nature of the operation and the ability to schedule all pilots as relief pilots.

DRW

cruisr

IIRC, the FO had charge of the US Airways flt when the birds hit. It was then that Sulley said "My aircraft" and took over. I guess most of the flying public think that the Capt does all things at all times and the FO grabs the coffee....

sbm12

Thanks, as always, for the info.

To the bit that you noted above, are you saying that at other airlines a pilot might be rated only as a FO and not able to be in command and that CO is different in this regard? Or something else?

doobierw

Correct. You would have thought from ALL of the news reports that Sully was the ONLY pilot on board the aircraft, when in fact, he wasn't even flying the aircraft when it happened.

Indeed, most of the flying public has no clue that we have TWO pilots on board who are generally equally qualified. The Captain is responsible for the safe conduct of the flight and generally has the final say. We always work as a team, and switch flying/non-flying duties on every leg.

Yes. I don't know the training tracks at EVERY airline, but know that all airlines don't normally type rate first officers. For those operations that involve relief ops, the pilots would be type rated, but it would be the exception. At NWA several years ago, the FOs on the 757s were not type rated, but they might be doing it now due to the 757s flying legs that require relief ops. DC-9s and A320s probably wouldn't be type rated.

However......having said that. Most First Officers at major airlines are pretty competent pilots and regardless of what it says on the piece of paper in their wallet, would be able to handle any situations we're talking about here. The bottom line is that we are all pilots.....one guy has one more stripe and gets paid more to make the big decisions....often after consulting with the guy sitting to his right.

DRW

us2

CO is no different than any other carrier. Captains and F/Os take turns flying and the checklists refer to the PF (pilot flying) and PNF (pilot not flying). Whether it's a Captain or F/O, they're fully trained and capable of flying the aircraft. The sole difference is that the Captain has final authority over all aspects of the flight and has command authoriy over the other crew members.

While this is a sad situation, I can think of any number of things that could happen over the Atlantic in a twin engine aircraft that would disturb me more than this. Many of these are things that one would never know about unless you were specifically told.

amlothi

Don't watch the news much, huh fellas?


The truth is buried under lots of shiny words designed to distract you from the fact that....oooh, American Idol is on next!

Mtbroxs

Right now on Fox News a female passenger is being interviewed who sat in seat 1L

acplt

The F/O would probably have stayed in the right seat the position that he is most familiar

pinworm

I may be wrong on this, but I thought an emergency was declared even when a PAX dies..something about biohazard, and of course potential foul play.

ajax

Indeed - this seems a rather small event, surely not worthy of the attention it's getting.

RunawayNFly

You are correct. This is considered a biohazard and foul play has to be ruled out.

RxCapt

I read an article recently in Airways that talks about how FOs at NW are trained as "Cruise Captains" who occupy the left seat on int'l longhaul flights to deal with any in-flight emergencies while the Capt is on break during in-flight cruise and cannot return to the flight deck. Specifically, the article addressed a rapid decompression, having to depart one of the pre-assigned "tracks" and the steps involved in making an emergency descent.

ConciergeMike

WNBC in NYC actually reported the story pretty straight, much to my surprise. Very drama-free.