Private Jets Have More Fatal Accidents Than Commercial Planes

[X-rated]

Anybody else see this:

http://www.ainonline.com/aviation-n...pilot-versus-two-pilot-there-safety-advantage

Seemed like using raw number of accidents rather than percentage of hours flown skews the picture to make single pilot ops just about as safe as two pilot ops.

Or am I missing something?

I was right there with you thinking the article was a total hatched job because the vast number of private jet operations are multi crew. However, looking at the type of aircraft considered, all are single pilot certified. It's at least possible there are more single pilot operations among that group than multi crew operations. I'd really like to see the actual numbers, but sadly I doubt they exist.

I used to fly a King Air 350 almost exclusively single pilot. I freely admit, on the rare occasion two single pilot captains flew together just trying to help the other guy out, invariably something got missed despite a type rated captain running the checklist from the right seat. We had no sop's for division of tasks and whether it was because each pilot thought the other guy would do something, or neither of us was operating within our normal flow, things got missed. Many times single pilot airplane captains train by themselves so they can fly by themselves when necessary even if they are normally part of a two pilot crew. I know I always trained single pilot. That can't be a good thing for a duel pilot crew. Considering pilots who fly this select group of airplanes often don't train together, follow multi crew SOPs, or regularly even fly as multi crew, I can see this article's conclusions being completely plausible. Also, considering a second pilot in a single pilot airplane is not required, some may not even be trained in type. Hey Mr. Flight Instructor, I need a copilot...

 

[Mooneymite]

Makes me wonder if the propaganda machine for single pilot airliners is getting cranked up.

When I started in aviation, the huge debate was whether a turbo jet could be safely flown by 'just" two pilots.

With UAV technology maturing, it is conceivable that the airliner of the future flies itself from push-back to block in with one pilot "just in case".

Perhaps this is the warning shot over the bow that the days of the two pilot cockpit are numbered?

 

[X-rated]

The telling statistic would be comparing the single pilot certified Jets to two pilot certified jets. I'm guessing there would be at least an order of magnitude between the two.