The following editorial originally appeared in the Chicago Tribune:
In March, a Boeing 737-800 cruising straight and level on a routine domestic flight suddenly nose-dived into a hillside, killing all 132 aboard.
A full report on the cause of that China Eastern Airlines crash is probably months away, but with no other explanations, suspicion has landed on the pilots. The Wall Street Journal reported that flight data indicate someone in the cockpit put the plane into an intentional dive.
Nothing puts aviation safety on the front burner like a mysterious and chilling plane crash, and the issue of safety is especially relevant as the U.S. grapples with its worst pilot shortage in recent memory.
Congress, the Federal Aviation Administration and the major carriers are mulling revised pilot qualifications to make more pilots available, while pilot unions are pushing back against measures that would weaken bargaining positions made stronger by the shortage.
The ideas include some reasonable steps, such as raising the mandatory retirement age for commercial pilots from 65 to 67 or older, and some potentially alarming ones, such as reducing training hours and allowing a single pilot instead of the current minimum two-person crew for certain commercial flights.
The approach we recommend is putting safety first.
Given the high stakes of traveling at 30,000 feet, the U.S. should not introduce new safety risks. Some refinements to the rules still could be appropriate — if the safety-first principle is respected.
Most of the current shortage is a function of the COVID-19 pandemic, when airlines responded to plunging demand with hiring freezes and early retirement packages, generous federal aid notwithstanding. As demand has risen, airlines have had to curtail potentially busy and profitable summer schedules for lack of crew.
While the pipeline of up-and-coming pilots is returning to normal, there’s no quick fix.
As for one-pilot cockpits, that’s a big N-O. For now, anyway.
Modern aircraft can indeed “fly themselves.” Between automation and the presence of pilots on the ground who can help manage a flight remotely, it is theoretically possible to eliminate pilots in the air. But who would want to take that flight?
Any set of rules can only go so far in protecting the flying public. In the China Eastern Airlines case, the pilots were qualified and the plane relatively new. Its maintenance records and safety checks were in good order, according to a preliminary investigative report. There was no evidence cited of system failures, the weather was fine and nothing dangerous lurked in the cargo. Still, the plane hit the ground almost vertically.
Commercial aviation is not perfect. But it is the safest mode of transportation and getting safer decade-by-decade. Let’s keep that record going.
