{"id":1193,"date":"2009-01-17T01:47:02","date_gmt":"2009-01-17T05:47:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/?p=1193"},"modified":"2009-01-17T01:47:02","modified_gmt":"2009-01-17T05:47:02","slug":"airbus-a320-certified-for-single-pilot-operation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2009\/01\/17\/airbus-a320-certified-for-single-pilot-operation\/","title":{"rendered":"Airbus A320 certified for single-pilot operation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>According to the press coverage of the US Airways floating tour of the Hudson River, the Airbus A320 has been certified for single-pilot operation.\u00a0 In the old days this airplane would have flown by a crew of two pilots, one titled &#8220;Captain&#8221; and one with the job title of &#8220;First Officer&#8221;.\u00a0 One of the two pilots would have been handling the stick and rudder while the other pilot worked the radio, flaps, slats, landing gear, pressurization controls (very critical in this case, since a jetliner ditching usually involves dumping the cabin pressure and then sealing the cabin just before impact).\u00a0 Generally these roles are swapped after each leg of a trip.\u00a0 The &#8220;pilot monitoring&#8221; role can be tougher than the &#8220;pilot flying&#8221; role when things go wrong.\u00a0 The stick and rudder stuff is what pilots have been doing since their first flight in a Cessna.\u00a0 Furthermore, all airplanes respond in a similar way to stick and rudder commands.\u00a0 The systems and switches on a modern airliner, however, are extremely complex and unique to a particular airplane type.\u00a0 For knowing what switch to push and in what order, experience gained on a previous airplane is of no value.<\/p>\n<p>From reading the New York Times, we learn that Chesley B. Sullenberger III was the pilot of US Airways 1549 and he was apparently working everything in the cockpit by himself, a truly remarkable achievement.<\/p>\n<p>[A reader of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.timesonline.co.uk\/tol\/news\/world\/us_and_americas\/article5533357.ece\">the London Times<\/a>, by contrast, would have learned that the A320 is flown by a two-pilot crew and that the first officer was Jeff Skiles (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.jsonline.com\/news\/wisconsin\/37719984.html\">profile<\/a>).]<\/p>\n<p>[News accounts have not\u00a0spent a lot of ink on\u00a0the people who did the toughest job in this incident: Shelia Dail, Donna Dent, and Doreen Welsh, the flight attendants.\u00a0 Being a pilot is a fairly straightforward job in a tightly controlled environment (except when both engines quit!).\u00a0 The flight attendants, however, face unique situations depending on who shows up as a passenger.\u00a0 In their training and drills they have to evacuate a fully-loaded airplane within 90 seconds.]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>According to the press coverage of the US Airways floating tour of the Hudson River, the Airbus A320 has been certified for single-pilot operation.\u00a0 In the old days [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Airbus A320 certified for single-pilot operation - Philip Greenspun\u2019s Weblog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2009\/01\/17\/airbus-a320-certified-for-single-pilot-operation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Airbus A320 certified for single-pilot operation - Philip Greenspun\u2019s Weblog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"According to the press coverage of the US Airways floating tour of the Hudson River, the Airbus A320 has been certified for single-pilot operation.\u00a0 In the old days [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2009\/01\/17\/airbus-a320-certified-for-single-pilot-operation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Philip Greenspun\u2019s Weblog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-01-17T05:47:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"philg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"philg\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2009\/01\/17\/airbus-a320-certified-for-single-pilot-operation\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2009\/01\/17\/airbus-a320-certified-for-single-pilot-operation\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"philg\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/448e4e6a0ae9105741a06dcf62cee50e\"},\"headline\":\"Airbus A320 certified for single-pilot operation\",\"datePublished\":\"2009-01-17T05:47:02+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2009\/01\/17\/airbus-a320-certified-for-single-pilot-operation\/\"},\"wordCount\":343,\"commentCount\":10,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/448e4e6a0ae9105741a06dcf62cee50e\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2009\/01\/17\/airbus-a320-certified-for-single-pilot-operation\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2009\/01\/17\/airbus-a320-certified-for-single-pilot-operation\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2009\/01\/17\/airbus-a320-certified-for-single-pilot-operation\/\",\"name\":\"Airbus A320 certified for single-pilot operation - Philip Greenspun\u2019s Weblog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2009-01-17T05:47:02+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2009\/01\/17\/airbus-a320-certified-for-single-pilot-operation\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2009\/01\/17\/airbus-a320-certified-for-single-pilot-operation\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2009\/01\/17\/airbus-a320-certified-for-single-pilot-operation\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Airbus A320 certified for single-pilot operation\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Philip Greenspun\u2019s Weblog\",\"description\":\"A posting every day; an interesting idea every three months...\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/448e4e6a0ae9105741a06dcf62cee50e\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":[\"Person\",\"Organization\"],\"@id\":\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/448e4e6a0ae9105741a06dcf62cee50e\",\"name\":\"philg\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/20210525-philip-greenspun-sea-turtle-release-scaled.jpg\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/20210525-philip-greenspun-sea-turtle-release-scaled.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/20210525-philip-greenspun-sea-turtle-release-scaled.jpg\",\"width\":2047,\"height\":2560,\"caption\":\"philg\"},\"logo\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/20210525-philip-greenspun-sea-turtle-release-scaled.jpg\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/author\/philg\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Airbus A320 certified for single-pilot operation - Philip Greenspun\u2019s Weblog","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2009\/01\/17\/airbus-a320-certified-for-single-pilot-operation\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Airbus A320 certified for single-pilot operation - Philip Greenspun\u2019s Weblog","og_description":"According to the press coverage of the US Airways floating tour of the Hudson River, the Airbus A320 has been certified for single-pilot operation.\u00a0 In the old days [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2009\/01\/17\/airbus-a320-certified-for-single-pilot-operation\/","og_site_name":"Philip Greenspun\u2019s Weblog","article_published_time":"2009-01-17T05:47:02+00:00","author":"philg","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"philg","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2009\/01\/17\/airbus-a320-certified-for-single-pilot-operation\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2009\/01\/17\/airbus-a320-certified-for-single-pilot-operation\/"},"author":{"name":"philg","@id":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/448e4e6a0ae9105741a06dcf62cee50e"},"headline":"Airbus A320 certified for single-pilot operation","datePublished":"2009-01-17T05:47:02+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2009\/01\/17\/airbus-a320-certified-for-single-pilot-operation\/"},"wordCount":343,"commentCount":10,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/448e4e6a0ae9105741a06dcf62cee50e"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2009\/01\/17\/airbus-a320-certified-for-single-pilot-operation\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2009\/01\/17\/airbus-a320-certified-for-single-pilot-operation\/","url":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2009\/01\/17\/airbus-a320-certified-for-single-pilot-operation\/","name":"Airbus A320 certified for single-pilot operation - Philip Greenspun\u2019s Weblog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2009-01-17T05:47:02+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2009\/01\/17\/airbus-a320-certified-for-single-pilot-operation\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2009\/01\/17\/airbus-a320-certified-for-single-pilot-operation\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2009\/01\/17\/airbus-a320-certified-for-single-pilot-operation\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Airbus A320 certified for single-pilot operation"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/","name":"Philip Greenspun\u2019s Weblog","description":"A posting every day; an interesting idea every three months...","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/448e4e6a0ae9105741a06dcf62cee50e"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":["Person","Organization"],"@id":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/448e4e6a0ae9105741a06dcf62cee50e","name":"philg","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/20210525-philip-greenspun-sea-turtle-release-scaled.jpg","url":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/20210525-philip-greenspun-sea-turtle-release-scaled.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/20210525-philip-greenspun-sea-turtle-release-scaled.jpg","width":2047,"height":2560,"caption":"philg"},"logo":{"@id":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/20210525-philip-greenspun-sea-turtle-release-scaled.jpg"},"url":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/author\/philg\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paokyZ-jf","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1193"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1193\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}