You have written about "the pilot". This seems to be a very common misconception. Are you aware that there are two fully qualified pilots on a commercial passenger airliner? One is designated the Captain, the other is designated the First Officer.
And in many airlines the first officer is nothing more than a young apprentice whose only actual flying experience in the air may have been at his flying school. If the captain becomes incapacitated his apprentice is now in charge of a plane load of passengers and he is all by himself. So yes - he is "fully qualified" on paper but that may mean nothing without the flying experience to fall back on.
Don't get me wrong. That is the norm nowadays. And statistically safe. Meets regulatory requirements too. But "fully qualified" doesn't necessarily reveal the whole story.