Are passengers at risk? Plus: Plenty of flotsam and jetsam, but no real answers in Air France crash

June 18, 2009 | Some quick notes, If you'll allow some cribbing from past columns, on the in-flight death of the Continental Airlines captain earlier Thursday ...

This was a highly unfortunate event, obviously, for the captain and his family. From a safety standpoint, however, it was really a non-issue. Remember that all commercial flights carry at least two fully qualified pilots, captain and first officer, who are able to operate the aircraft in all regimes of flight, in good weather or bad. A transoceanic flight, such as Brussels, Belgium, to Newark, N.J., on which crew members take scheduled rest breaks, would have been carrying a minimum of three pilots -- a captain and two first officers, one of whom would be designated a "relief" first officer.

The first officer is known colloquially as the copilot, but he or she is not an apprentice or a helping hand. First officers perform just as many takeoffs and landings as captains do.

Captains and first officers will typically take turns at the controls. On a two-leg day, for instance, the captain will fly the first leg, and the first officer will take the second. Flying Newark to Brussels, the captain would have been the "flying pilot," as it's called, with the first officers sharing the various other duties. On this afternoon's return trip, one of the first officers would be at the controls, with the captain assuming the other duties. This is industry standard. Both on-duty pilots are plenty busy, but only one is physically at the controls. The captain, of course, always has command authority -- and a somewhat bigger paycheck. (Moving from first officer to captain is strictly a function of seniority.)

Long and short, when the Boeing 777 touched down at Newark, there were two fully rated pilots at the controls -- exactly as there would have been normally.

Obviously, crew incapacitation would be a serious issue during a critical phase of flight -- takeoff and landing, namely -- but pilots are trained to recognize and react to it. Apparently the Continental captain suffered cardiac arrest during the low-workload cruise portion of the flight.

Protocols can be somewhat subjective, but airlines have their own rules and procedures governing what to do if a passenger or crew member passes away. The media has reported that the passengers were not made aware that the captain had died. Presumably the first officers, together with staff on the ground, decided this was the best course of action. Operationally, nothing about the flight would have been handled any differently.

When somebody on board falls ill, the crew will communicate with company personnel and medical specialists on the ground, while also soliciting help from doctors, nurses or any other health professionals who happen to be on board. Commercial planes carry a cardiac defibrillator and EEMK (enhanced emergency medical kit). Flight attendants receive some emergency medical training, but are not paramedic certified.

An interesting angle to this story: The mandatory retirement age for pilots in the United States was recently increased from age 60 to 65. The Continental captain was 60. He could just as easily have been 59 -- or 40 -- but you will probably hear some I-told-you-so rumblings from those who were opposed to this rule change from the start.

Pilots over 60 need to meet stringent, twice-yearly medical exams. Stipulations also prevent two over-60 pilots from being paired together on the same flight.

One more small point, but something that keeps jumping out at me when I peruse the various media stories: They refer to the doctor who reportedly "went to the cockpit" to examine the captain. This is impossible. Under no circumstances would a passenger be allowed into the cockpit while aloft, even to assist a gravely ill crew member. Most likely the captain had been removed from this station, and the doctor is referring to the cockpit area.

From the remarkable photo archives at Airliners.net, here is a shot of the doomed Air France Airbus A330 (registration F-GZCP), taken at Charles de Gaulle airport on the morning of May 31. It would later depart for Rio de Janeiro, with a scheduled return to Paris in the evening, as Flight 447.

Over two weeks have passed now since the airplane disappeared in stormy weather off northeast Brazil. Investigators and salvage teams have been scouring the ocean, hauling in ever more bodies, luggage and airplane parts. There is plenty of flotsam and jetsam, but alas no real answers. Recovery of the elusive black boxes appears more and more unlikely.



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