On March 18th, an Air Transat Airbus A321 was flying from Fort-de-France to Montreal when the
aircraft's first officer became incapacitated. The incident occurred as the aircraft was
flying over the United States, 200NM south of Montreal. According to The Aviation Herald,
the incident took place aboard Air Transat flight TS739, which was using an Airbus A321-200.
In today’s video, let’s look at what we know about the incident.
The flight took off at 13:34, 34 minutes past its scheduled departure time. According to
FlightRadar24.com data, the A321 reached a cruising altitude of FL320 approximately
25 minutes after departure. The aircraft increased its cruising altitude twice more
during the flight, going up to Flight Level 340, and then Flight Level 360.
191 people were onboard the A321-200, which was registered C-GTCY.
At FL360, about 200NM south of Montreal, the first officer reportedly became incapacitated.
Unfortunately, no additional details on the first officer's condition were made available.
However, the Canadian Transportation Safety Board reported that a second
officer was available onboard and was thus able to
replace the incapacitated first officer to perform a safe landing in Montreal..
This Air Transat incident was actually the first of two incidents of its kind happening
within the span of a week. Indeed days later, on March 22nd, a Southwest Airlines flight from
Las Vegas (Nevada) to Columbus (Ohio), saw its captain become incapacitated.
For this incident, the Aviation Herald notes that the Boeing 737-700 was en route
at FL370 about 160 Nautical Miles northeast of Las Vegas when the first officer radioed
air traffic control to notify them that the captain was complaining about stomach pain.
It was then noted that the captain then became incapacitated. In a similar resolution to the
Air Transat situation, another pilot was available to step in. In this case,
it was a passenger that was an off-duty, fully-licensed pilot for a different airline.
Despite two such instances taking place within a week,
these cases are thankfully quite rare. However, the top priority for aviation is safety.
Thus, the reality of the occasional "incapacitated pilot" incident is one
strong argument against the possibility of single-pilot operations. Two pilots in the
cockpit provide redundancy so that if one of the pilots were to become incapacitated,
the other could take over the full operation of the aircraft and perform a landing.
Last month, a Reuters report noted that the European Union Aviation Safety Agency
(EASA) had ruled out single-pilot flights by 2030. However, the regulator was reportedly
still evaluating proposals from Airbus and Dassault Aviation. This could see lmited
single-pilot operation for parts of the flight as early as 2027.
It would appear, however, that some proposals for single-pilot operations
would still include at least one other pilot onboard the aircraft.
This is the case for Airbus and Cathay Pacific's 'Project Connect',
which envisions a fatigued pilot being able to rest in the crew rest area while the other pilot
flies solo during less-demanding portions of the flight, and not takeoff or landing.
But what are your thoughts on these recent 'incapacitated pilot' incidents?
Share your thoughts by leaving a comment.