eMCO-SiPO - Extended Minimum Crew Operations – Single Pilot Operations – Safety Risk Assessment Framework

The objectives

• assess the issues and the feasibility of the implementation of eMCOs in the EU regulatory framework by developing a reference risk-assessment framework and investigating a series of key safety hazards and mitigations listed in this document;
• assess the issues and the feasibility of the implementation of SiPOs in the EU regulatory framework through a preliminary analysis of the related main safety hazards. 

The main tasks and deliverables will address the following critical areas

• Pilot workload: Ensure that the workload of the single-pilot during the cruise phase of the flight is acceptable in normal, abnormal, and non-normal operations.
• Pilot error: Ensure that the cockpit design is appropriately tolerant of errors, noting that when operating as single-pilot, there is no scope for cross-checking actions by another pilot.
• Pilot incapacitation: Detect whether the single-pilot during the cruise phase of the flight is no longer fit to fly. Ensure that the level of safety remains acceptable in case of pilot Incapacitation.
• Fatigue: Ensure that the level of fatigue remains at least as acceptable as for conventional two-pilot operations.
• Sleep inertia: Ensure resilience of the aircraft and of the operational environment for the time required for the resting pilot to recover sufficiently from the effects of sleep inertia that they can either take command of the aircraft and continue to a safe landing in case of incapacitation of the pilot-flying or be able to assist the pilot-flying with a complex failure scenario.
• Breaks due to physiological needs: Allow the single-pilot to temporarily leave their station to attend to their physiological needs during an eMCO segment of the flight while ensuring an acceptable level of safety and security.
   

Note: This page describes the brief for a research project on EmCo and SiPo. The objectives indicated on this webpage are part of the research brief. Once the research project has ended and the final deliverables have been accepted, EASA will consider the outcomes as one input to its rulemaking work to enable EmCO/SiPO operations. Operations will also need to demonstrate compliance with the regulatory framework. EASA will only approve such operations once the Agency is convinced that they are at least as safe as today’s two-pilot operations.