By dint of no longer flying, have airplane pilots lost their touch?

Tourism is slowly picking up, restrictions are easing and flights are gradually resuming around the world, after months of almost no activity in the aviation sector, due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The pilots go back into the cockpits. But the recovery is not so simple: the minor errors of the pilots, linked to the loss of habits, multiply, according to a study carried out by the Aeronautical University of Embry-Riddle, located in Arizona, in the United States. It was carried out from incidents reported on the Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS), which collects incident reports submitted voluntarily by pilots or controllers, reports the Korii media.

"It's when we redo a slot by car, safety is not at stake"

According to this report, out of 4,326 incident reports declared during the post-Covid-19 period from July 2019 to February 2020, only one could be associated with a lack of skills and/or knowledge, whereas during the period of Covid-19 from March 2020 to October 2020, of the 2,412 reported incident reports, ten indicated that the incident may have been due to a lack of skills and/or knowledge.

According to the Bloomberg media, nothing serious was recorded, but “muscle memory and automatisms are blunted and emergency procedures take a few extra seconds to be put in place” .

Xavier Tytelman, aeronautical consultant at Aviation NXT France, specializing in advising companies in the aviation sector, confirms that the types of errors analyzed in the study are not serious: "It may be, for example, the wrong stabilizing an aircraft when there is wind, pilots know how to do it, but are more seasoned by doing it often, he explains. Stability is achieved fifteen kilometers before the track and you have to be precise, a degree too far to the left, you have to go back on the gas, to reaccelerate and start the maneuver again. This does not mean that “ safety comes into play, it's like when you start a car slot again because you haven't succeeded. »

According to the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University study, a lack of regular access to simulators, which are expensive but essential for maintaining flying skills at a high level of safety, is to blame. If the pilots did not have access to the simulators it is because several of them were laid off or dismissed by their companies.

Read also: Why do we always board planes from the left side?

“We are less affected in France by these small errors”

In France, the situation is nuanced. Xavier Tytelman says he "didn't notice anything" and "no pilot told [him] that he made more minor mistakes" . And then, he adds, "in my opinion, we are less affected [in France] by these small errors, we are relatively protected, because long-haul flights have never stopped thanks to our territories of overseas" .

Vincent Gilles, vice-president of the National Union of Airline Pilots (SNPL), explains that at Air France, the company for which he works as an airline pilot, "there was no dismissals and no pilot was arrested, the choice to offer simulator sessions to remedy the lack of training was made,” he says. “I do not have an exhaustive look but I know the situation at Air France”, he wishes to specify.

"At Air France, pilots cannot do less than two long-haul rotations per month, that is to say two round trips", continues Vincent Gilles. If these four flights are not feasible, “we are forced to practice 4 hours of simulator per flight, and this in an intense way, with breakdowns and three take-offs and landings. It is also an opportunity to practice situations with which we are less comfortable .

Vincent Gilles admits, however, that “drivers must be aware that the lack of training is a risk factor and take margins to mitigate them. For example, instead of stabilizing his aircraft at 500 feet as before, he must do so at 1,000 feet. A way to ensure safety.

Read also: Fuselage, fuel, speed… What will the planes of tomorrow look like?