Former Qantas pilot slams ‘ludicrous’ single pilot proposal following several mechanical issues at the national carrier

Last November it was revealed upwards of 40 nations have lobbied the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) to help make single pilots on passenger planes a reality.

However in the wake of a series of failures Richard De Crespigny described the proposal as “ludicrous”.

“It would be lunacy to have a single pilot in the cockpit,” he told Sky News Australia on Friday.

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“All aviation since the Second World War has been designed to have two competent, licensed, experienced, well-trained pilots in the seats flying the aircraft.”

“It would be gross overload. The concept of single pilot aircraft is ludicrous at the moment.”

On Wednesday Qantas flight QF144 issued a mayday alert during a flight from Auckland to Sydney.

The Boeing 737 touched down at Sydney Airport just before 3.30pm AEDT after one of its engines failed about an hour from reaching its destination.

Fire and Rescue, Police and Ambulance crews were on standby at the airport, but the alert was later downgraded to a PAN (possible assistance needed).

Mr De Crespigny said in emergency situations such as this one, two pilots are necessary.

“If there had been one pilot on that aircraft coming out of Auckland, he’d be battling to manage a checklist, let alone talk to the cabin crew or air traffic control or Qantas or the fire services,” he added.

A Qantas flight bound for Fiji on Thursday was forced to turn back to Sydney as a precaution after a “potential mechanical issue”.

Flight QF101 was forced land at Sydney Airport about 10.50am on Thursday after circling over the NSW coast for almost two hours.

A spokesperson said the Boeing 737 returned to Sydney as a precaution after “pilots received a fault indicator”.

Then on Friday two aircrafts from Melbourne were forced to turn back shortly after departing.

Sydney-bound Qantas flight QF430 departed the Victorian capital at about 9.30am but was forced to circle back after the Boeing 737 aircraft experienced minor engine issues.

A short time later QantasLink’s 10.30am service QF1516 took off for Canberra.

The aircraft experienced issues with its flaps and was also forced to turn back to Melbourne Airport.

A Qantas spokesperson confirmed to SkyNews.com.au both flights landed back in Melbourne safely and customers were re-accommodated on the next available flights.

The accomplished former Qantas pilot said despite the recent dramas at the national carrier, engine failures are rare.

“I have to stress that engines are very reliable in passenger aircrafts,” Mr De Crespigny said.

“Engines only fail one in every 350,000 engine hours which means that one in nine twin engine aircraft pilots will ever see an engine failure in their whole career,” he said.

“It’s still a surprise when it happens. The pilot declared a mayday which is an indication of grave and imminent danger and we don’t know what happened in the cockpit, we weren’t there, but I absolutely respect the authority of the captain to do that.”