Pilots Making More Errors After Months Not Flying During Covid

Pilots have reported making more errors while flying after becoming out of practice during Covid restrictions.

Pilots in America have registered at least a dozen “mishaps,” according to the Nasa Aviation Safety Reporting System, making the errors after becoming “rusty” while not flying as much during the Covid pandemic.

Errors included forgetting to disengage the parking brake before take-off, forgetting to turn off the de-icing mechanism inflight, and one pilot taking three attempts to land a plane on a windy day.

Flight crew can submit safety reports anonymously to Nasa’s Aviation Safety Reporting System, which is then used for education purposes.

Richard G. McSpadden Jr, senior vice president of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, told one publication: “The key to flying safely is frequency.”

He added: “You are not as sharp if you haven’t flown for a while.”

Last month, a survey carried out by aviation publisher FlightGlobal and GOOS Recruitment found more the half the world’s trained pilots are no longer working, as the travel industry continues to be affected by the Covid pandemic.

According to the study of 2,600 flight crew around the world, only 43 per cent of the world’s pilots are still flying professionally.

Of that number, 30 per cent said they were unemployed. Another 17 per cent were furloughed, 6 per cent were still employed in aviation, and 4 per cent were working in another industry.

Due to the Covid pandemic, air travel has dropped to its lowest levels for decades as travel restrictions come in to force and passenger numbers fall, leaving pilots to report making more errors.

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