Oxygen mask ON in emergency descend

[in FACT is]

dear instructor & examiner,

who should don the oxygen mask first, during initiating the emergency descend???:confused: Commander, First Officer, Pilot Flying or Pilot monitoring, since the law has said one of the pilot must be at the control (monitoring, or controlling) of the aircraft at all times.

I'm a bit confuse, in my previous company the Commander (PF), must don his oxygen mask first, so he has to transfer the control to the First Officer and back again to control the airplane, if he as PM no problem he don the mask first.

In my new company, they said just don it no matter who's both pilot at the same times and just leave the airplane in Autopilot:= this make me uneasy since years since I have started flying I never leave the airplane fly alone with the Autopilot, all plane's fly on Autopilot now days, but there always pilot's in the cockpit to control and monitoring:ok:

Is there any rule or regulation that we have to rely 100% to the Autopilot's of course the present Autopilot are very reliable, but leave the more than 400 S.O.B without human interaction:mad:

[clivewatson]

You seem to be confused about how one actually "dons" (puts on) an oxygen mask because it certainly does not involve leaving the cockpit, or even your seat!! The mask is positioned either immediately beside you, or otherwise just behind your shoulder, and is therefore easily reachable while facing forward.

In all types I have flown the emergency drills for partial or sudden loss of pressurisation call for BOTH crew members to don masks as a first and immediate memory action....NO DELAY. While cruising in or above the high thirties, one MUST start breathing oxygen very quickly, or risk losing useful conciousness within as little as five seconds! (Google Time of Useful Conciousness TOC Charts).

The emergency event is not one that can happen at low level so it more than likely that it will occur while in the cruise, when it is highly likely that the auto pilot will be engaged. Even if for some strange reason one crew member was actually hand flying at the time, that crew member should be quite capable of managing to don his mask without any serious impediment to managing the flight path of the aircraft.

There is therefore no need to leave the cockpit unattended.

[Mach E Avelli]

If the autopilot is still working, I would expect both pilots to don masks simultaneously, especially at high levels where the time of useful conciousness could be as little as 10-20 seconds. We don't need one pilot left to deal with the problem as well as having his partner incapacitated. Also, if the autopilot is still working, why not use it to fly the emergency descent? In some aeroplanes it does an excellent job and leaves the pilots to get on with managing the problem.
On the other hand, if it has all turned to fertilizer and the autopilot is NOT available, common sense must prevail. If something major has blown up/out and is making the aircraft very unstable, whichever pilot is best placed to fly it should fly it until the other guy gets his mask on. Normally the Captain would fly the descent, as the F/O has the pressurization panel closer to his vision (Boeing and a few other types) and so could be better placed to do the drills. But what if the Captain's windscreen has gone? The F/O could be in a better position to fly it, as the Captain could be getting beaten up pretty bad. There have been bird strikes at quite high altitudes and at least one case of a windscreen blowing out where one pilot has been injured and the other has had to do everything.
Company training departments may need to consider situations that are unpredictable and encourage a bit more common sense. SOPs are all very well, but can not hope to cover everything.
Oh, and make sure you practice donning the mask until you can do it in 2 or 3 seconds. If you wear reading glasses you may need about 4 seconds, which doesn't give you long at high altitude.

[SNS3Guppy]

who should don the oxygen mask first, during initiating the emergency descend??? Commander, First Officer, Pilot Flying or Pilot monitoring, since the law has said one of the pilot must be at the control (monitoring, or controlling) of the aircraft at all times.

The "law" also states that during an emergency, the pilot in command (and crew) may deviate from the regulation as necessary to meet the needs of the emergency.

If the emergency descent is conducted for environmental reasons requiring oxygen (loss of cabin pressure, smoke in the cockpit, etc), then getting on oxygen and establishing communications is more important than the emergency descent. Everybody should get their masks on.

You're doubtless familiar with the cabin safety briefing in which each passenger is told to get their mask on first, before attempting to help anyone else. The logic here is common-sense. One is no good to anyone if one is incapacitated.

Get the mask on. Establish communications. Then worry about the descent.

Who should get their mask on first? Who cares? Race to see who's first. Get the mask on, ensure one can remain safe and conscious, then proceed with handling the emergency.

Our immediate action items for a loss of cabin pressure involve oxygen on at 100%, and establishing crew communications. We have no emergency descent memory items; it's all challenge and response. This gives an important clue as to the priority. One must get oxygen to survive. This is more important than anything else at the time of an emergency requiring a descent. Get protected, get safe, then get down.

[gigi116]

to be coherent with your philosophy PF cannot remove or adjust his headset or drink or.... blow his nose etc etc ..while autopilot engaged :O !!!!

you should REMOVE masks one at a time.

My Company SEP :

1) Both IMMEDIATELY don OXY masks and estabilish Communications
2) Both quickly asses situation (cabin alt, structural damage, smoke)
3) PF start emergency descent while PM call ATC, triple chime to Cabin.
4) PF Turn away 90 ° when on Airway
5) PM switch all external lights ON, 7700 on txpdr , read check list for omitted items and monitor TCAS
6) At safe altitude PM put mask off while PF still donned for a while (Hypoxia may be present)
7) Captain provvide for announcements on PA.

ciao