Two or three pilots?
Thread Starter
Joined: Sep 2007
Posts: 516
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From: London
Two or three pilots?
Are there international laws governing the number of pilots a long-haul flight needs? Or is it simply company policy?
I recently flew with Virgin Atlantic from Manchester to Orlando and there were only two pilots on board. The flight lasted approximately eight hours.
Would both pilots have been on the flight deck for the entirety of the flight (excluding the obvious toilet visits)? Eight hours seems like a long time to concentrate.
I understand that V/A put three pilots on their flights to Los Angeles and San Francisco. Is this simply because these flights are a few hours longer?
I recently flew with Virgin Atlantic from Manchester to Orlando and there were only two pilots on board. The flight lasted approximately eight hours.
Would both pilots have been on the flight deck for the entirety of the flight (excluding the obvious toilet visits)? Eight hours seems like a long time to concentrate.
I understand that V/A put three pilots on their flights to Los Angeles and San Francisco. Is this simply because these flights are a few hours longer?
Per Ardua ad Astraeus
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 18,575
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From: UK
There are various 'schemes' for determining duty limits, depending on time of day, rest before and after etc., and airlines will use the appropriate one. You can be pretty sure this one was legal.
Joined: Jul 2007
Posts: 61
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From: Birmingham, United Kingdom
Come to think of it, Air India from BHX always have more than 2 pilots on their flights to Amritsar (ATQ) / Delhi (DEL), and Toronto (YYZ). Very rarely will they have 3 pilotss, and more often than not have 4, somtimes even more. There have even been times where there has been 6 pilots, 2 or more would normally take first class seats.
