Reducing the size of airline crews to a single pilot would result in safety risks that outweigh the associated cost savings and other potential benefits, according to a report released Wednesday by the Air Line Pilots Association, International (ALPA).
The ALPA White Paper: The Dangers of Single-Pilot Operations said that most proposals to reduce the size of the typical two-pilot flight crew emphasize the cost savings that would result.
“However,” the report said, “the current body of evidence and experience, including more than a decade of study by the [U.S.] National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the [U.S.] Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), shows that the safety risks and challenges associated with single-pilot operations far outweigh its potential benefits.”
Single-pilot operations constitute “a risk not w…
