A Passenger Landing An Airplane - Possible In An Airliner?

A news video is doing the rounds on social media about a passenger, the only passenger, landing an aeroplane after, as mentioned by that passenger, the pilot became ¡®incoherent¡¯ in the two-pilot cockpit.

Many people have been asking me if it is possible. Well, I thought it was not, but someone seems to have done it, provided it¡¯s not a fake story created for 15 seconds of fame.

Which brings us to the question: Will it be possible in an airline?

Let¡¯s see.

During my long innings in the air¡ª42 years and counting¡ªI¡¯ve seen a few born flyers who could just do it naturally; but the rest of us, and most of us, require a lot of preparation and training to fly safely. Even those few natural flyers could not really take to the air, the way fish take to water. They still had to study and learn to fly under the supervision of qualified flying instructors.

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When I flew fighters in the Indian Air Force, they were single cockpit single pilot planes and we did everything by ourselves from take-off to landing. And unlike commercial flying, which I do now, fighter flying involved a lot of dangerous manoeuvres, at high and low altitudes, over land, sea and mountains, very close to the limits of aircraft and human performance. That would simply be impossible for an untrained novice.

Post IAF, in commercial flying, I often have passengers wanting to take a look at the cockpit before deplaning. Rules strictly forbid it in the air, but on the ground, unless it affects safety or punctuality, we normally let the passengers see the cockpit from the door itself, without, of course, touching anything.

For their benefit, I always put the lights to ¡®Test¡¯ mode, which illuminates all of them, to show the passengers the sheer number of lights and switches we have in the cockpit, extending from the floor all the way up and also from left to right, covering almost the entire sphere of vision and action.

On seeing that, one lady remarked, ¡°Oh my god! How do you remember all this?¡±

¡°The same way you remember everything in your office, kitchen, and the children's schoolbags, madam,¡± I politely told her, and she flashed me an appreciative smile.

Flying, like swimming and cycling, is a lifelong skill. One might get rusty, but one doesn¡¯t forget the basics. However, flying an airliner to a congested airport among all the traffic is not that simple, which is why during and after the Covid lockdown, when we flew very less, we used to be extra careful to ensure that we made no mistakes.

There were articles online in India and abroad those days about pilots facing difficulties after long gaps in flying. That there has not been an accident proves that the pilots and all the others involved in providing a safe flying environment have indeed done their jobs well.

Even before the pandemic and the lockdown, there were rules in place to ensure continuity and safety. If a pilot does not fly for 30 days, he or she is required to do a Route Check with a Trainer Pilot before he can fly on his own. We also have to undergo a Recurrent Training session in the Full Flight Simulator followed by a Proficiency Check every 6 months.

Why in the Simulator and not in the aircraft? That¡¯s because we cannot simulate dangerous situations in the aircraft with passengers on board ¡ª emergencies like engine failure, fire and bad weather.

The ultimate test of proficiency for a pilot is going ¡®solo.¡¯ Solo means flying all by himself or herself without the presence of the instructor in the aircraft.

In an airline, since there is no solo, the ultimate test is when, after the long process of training, you fly as a co-pilot by yourself, when the captain, the airline and the passengers expect you to know and do your job well. As a co-pilot, you need to be proficient, but you never feel quite responsible yet, because in case of any problem, difficulty or doubt, the captain is always available right there. So, the true equivalent of a solo in an airline happens when you fly by yourself as a captain for the first time.

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I have a theory about that.

For the first 500 hours, a new co-pilot is busy finding his bearings.

On flying 1000 hours, he feels comfortable.

At 1500 hours, he believes he knows everything.

At 2000 hours, he thinks the captain knows nothing!

On reaching 2500 hours, when he becomes a captain, he shifts from the right seat to the left seat, looks left, sees his face stare back at him in the windshield and realises how difficult the job is, when the immense responsibility of two hundred trusting passengers weighs on his shoulders.

I¡¯ve used the pronoun ¡®he¡¯ for simplicity, but this applies equally to lady co-pilots, though they are more focussed and studious.

As I¡¯ve always said about airplanes, ¡®in case of trouble, this vehicle cannot be stopped on the roadside to await assistance.¡¯ And that is the primary reason we have two pilots. They assist each other in doing the job efficiently and safely, and can take over in case one of them is physically or medically overwhelmed¡ªtechnically called ¡®incapacitated.¡¯

But that requires a lot of training.

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If both pilots become unavailable, can someone guide a passenger on the radio to land the airplane? I¡¯ve seen it happen in many movies, but never believed it possible, but someone has done it now, presuming, of course, that the news is absolutely true and correct.

There has been a chilling accident where the pilots and the passengers were starved of oxygen because of faulty switch selection. One cabin crew member, who was very fit, survived longer than the others, but despite being familiar with the aircraft and the cockpit, certainly more knowledgeable than a passenger, there was nothing he could do to save the plane. When that aircraft did not respond at all, the ground radar sent fighter planes, who flew in close formation and reported that everyone had collapsed in the seats. The aircraft flew on under the control of the autopilot till it ran out of fuel and crashed.

To get guidance from people on the ground, a passenger would require to handle the radios, which itself is tricky. After that, the number of switches and displays in the cockpit is simply overwhelming for the uninitiated.

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Which is also why a pilot like me, who normally flies the Boeing 737, cannot simply walk into another aircraft and start flying it.

In case of an emergency, if I were required to go into an unfamiliar cockpit, I might figure out a few switches and may manage to land the aircraft, not without some difficulty. But a passenger who has never ever seen a cockpit before, being able to land an airliner, does seem rather impossible.

That may sound depressing and pessimistic, but it is the truth - unsweetened and ungarnished.

The writer is a former fighter pilot of the IAF and now a commercial airline pilot. He is the author of three books and many blog posts, available at www.avinashchikte.com