"Dangers of Reduced Crew Operations" - IFALPA
Received today: IFALPA Position paper entitled "Dangers of Reduced Crew Operations" (Nov. 6, 2020)
Salient quote from intro:
"Despite [commercial aviation's] enviable safety record, various commercial aviation interests are actively considering and planning to remove pilots from airline aircraft. They are advocating for systems which will reduce the number of pilots down to a single pilot, or in some cases, no pilot at all."
Short form of Position Paper;
https://www.ifalpa.org/media/3570/20...operations.pdf
Long form of Position Paper:
https://ifalpa.org/media/3568/20pos0...operations.pdf
Some people and groups who are concerned with these and similar questions or issues have argued that reductions in pilot roles is inevitable, pointing to advances in technology as well as fallibility of humans. Others have disagreed, relying on points which this SLF/attorney believes will be found in the IFALPA position paper (among others). (Sorry for this pedantic intro, it's just for context....)
If the arguments made by IFALPA are valid, the fact that it represents the interests of pilots should not be viewed as any basis to dismiss their arguments or to be more summarily dismissive. After all, does any other entity, formal or less structured, have a valid claim for being "the global voice of pilots"? It - IFALPA - doesn't encompass all organized labor groups of pilots, yet it is the closest thing to authoritative which exists, is it not? (
raison d'être for this thread . . . . ).
(The International Federation of Air Line Pilots' Associations states that in "the interest of flight safety, reproduction of this publication in whole or in part is encouraged.")