America Needs to Keep Two Pilots on the Flight Deck

Having at least two highly trained and experienced pilots on every flight keeps air travel America’s safest mode of transportation

The most vital safety feature on a commercial airline passenger and cargo aircraft is this: at least two experienced, trained and rested professional pilots on the flight deck.

Flying a commercial airliner isn’t something that can safely be done solo. It’s true that significant technological advances in weather monitoring, automation, navigation, surveillance, communications, and information-processing contribute to the impressive safety record of U.S. commercial aviation. But more than a decade of research by NASA and the Federal Aviation Administration(FAA) has shown that all these systems not only work best when there are at least two pilots on deck – one pilot flying and one pilot monitoring aircraft status, weather, and operations.