On autopilot?

“There is one potential problem with automation: that it will be accompanied by complacency and ignorance” – Captain Richard de Crespigny in his book QF32

Complacency and ignorance, says Richard de Crespigny, who led the crew that saved QF32 in 2010, means that airline crash rates might increase because cockpit automation has resulted in a decline in flying skills. Add to that mix concerns over the multi-crew pilot’s licence expressed by Captain Chesley (Sully) Sullenberger and you have the ingredients for serious problems.

In the June edition of the RoyalAeronautical Society journal Aerospace Captain de Crespigny warned that “there are an increasing number of near misses that might be a precursor to more accidents. ” In his RAeS article ‘Resilience – Recovering pilots’ lost flying skills’ about the industry in general (not Qantas), Captain de Crespigny said that many pilots have lost confidence in flying manually because automation has taken much of their hand flying skills away. “We see Tiger Woods and Roger Federer practising constantly but a pilot does not practice hand flying to anywhere near the same extent,” said de Crespigny.