What are Airline Pilots Doing During the Corona Virus Pandemic?

What are airline pilots doing during the Corona Virus Pandemic?
Life is tough for everyone around the world during this Corona Virus Pandemic. Malls and restaurants are closed, stadiums are empty, and the skies above our heads are quiet. Medical staff, grocery store workers, and delivery drivers work around the clock to keep things afloat. For everyone who can work from home, kitchens and living rooms serve as de facto offices. It’s a disconcerting and uneasy time for us all.

for Updates, Click Here ->

RSS Feed

Airlines have been hit brutally by the coronavirus pandemic. With countries banning international travel, the demand for flights has declined rapidly. Aircraft have been parked at airports with pilots and flight attendants left waiting at home, not knowing when they will work again. (I have been flying in Europe for the past 2 weeks, and controllers are stating that 80-85% of the flights have cancelled).

Flight Cancellations the part that hurts most for travelers, as well as pilots. The waiting. The unknown. As a pilot who flies long-haul routes across the oceans, the schedules can change rapidly. As a pilot, we are always concerned for safety. But now we must be cognizant of the factors affecting our health. 

Over the past few weeks, we are seeing many countries with different protocols being put in place. Some countries have the military meet us at the jet, some countries have extreme medical testing, some countries do self-quarantine, and but most countries are taking this matter very seriously.

On this matter of Health, one of my major concerns is getting a bad test result or a false test result while in a foreign country. Just imagine being isolated in a foreign country where the majority of the people don't speak the same language as you - and they toss me into a dormitory type holding area with others who are sick. Yes, this is happening in the largest Asian country in the world (frightening)!

However, the part of the job I still love is now the most worrying. Travel used to free my mind; now it's a major concern. Fears of unknowingly passing the virus to someone else, or being stranded away in a foreign quarantine cell from family are now front of mind.

Even with more people practicing social distancing and staying at home, there are some flights that still operate. People need to get back to their home countries and you can’t fly a commercial aircraft without pilots and flight attendants. What this means is that pilots are being quarantined in various areas. Some good places (swanky hotels) and some awful places (hotels without HVAC or food). 

The rules on international travel are changing by the day
Some countries have a total ban on foreign nationals entering; others grant airline crew entry in certain conditions. In the United States, international airline crew must abide by strict government quarantine rules for the entirety of their trip.

Crew must remain in the hotel as much as possible—this includes eating all meals in their room, either by room service or by bringing your own canned food. If food is not available in the hotel, a short walk to a nearby take-out restaurant is permitted. However, with cities starting to shut down, this may not be an option in some locations. To discourage social gatherings, hotels have closed swimming pools and shut down gyms (but I'm growing a belly.. Ugh!). Also cities are issuing stiff fines for violators.

For me, the ultimate fear is being stranded in a foreign country when the rules suddenly change and the exit strategy is removed. Fortunately, most airlines put contingency plans in place for this possibility. Even if I were to operate the last flight into a city, I would fly home on the same aircraft (as a passenger, in order to not violate limitations on the number of consecutive hours a pilot can fly). But there are communist Asian countries that would rather throw you into an unheated, non-airconditioned dormitory for 14+ days until they deem you as worthy to leave.

The operational side of flying the aircraft has also changed.
For every flight, we must designate an alternate landing airport should we not be able to land at the destination due to bad weather or the airport closing unexpectedly. For a flight to Cleveland, this would normally be somewhere like Columbus or Pittsburgh.

However, as of March 20, 2020, the U.S. government has decreed that flights arriving from the majority of Europe may only land at 13 U.S. airports. This is to ensure that passengers flights receive proper screening on arrival. These are known as the “gateway” airports. But in the cargo industry, the rules are much different. 

As neither Columbus nor Pittsburgh are gateway airports, we can no longer use them. The closest useable airport to Cleveland could be hundreds of miles away. That means flights will carry additional fuel in the event we have to fly farther than originally expected.

Concerns about health and hygiene inflight
Social distancing becomes a problem when you’re flying an jet. On the flight deck, we sit just three feet apart, we are both required to touch the same switches and buttons. On longer flights with more than two pilots, we’re required to use the same rest areas as the previous pilot when taking our turn for inflight rest. Radio headsets provided in the aircraft are shared. There’s only so much distance you can keep from other people in a sealed metal tube seven miles above the ground.

When entering the flight deck, I clean as many of the controls, buttons and switches as I can with alcohol wipes—the control column, thrust levers, the radio transmission switch, and hundreds of others. I also make sure that the high-usage areas such as the lavatory is cleaned several times throughout the flight and that I wash/sanitize my hands regularly. (My skin is becoming very dry). 

That said, I try not to let myself think about Corona virus too much. Prioritizing and focusing on the job at hand is what we call Compartmentalizing. We only focus on flying when we are on duty. Flying the aircraft safely is my top priority and I cannot let anything distract me from that.

Despite all these challenges, hope remains
Supply chains (cargo flights like UPS) need maintaining and commercial aviation plays a vital role in this. On most long-haul passenger flights, tons of medical supplies, food and critical items are in the cargo holds. For the world’s medical needs and hungry people, these critical cargo need to keep moving, flights need to keep going.

We are doing our best to stay Corona Virus Free and Safe so we can return home to our families. Please do your part so we can end this pandemic and return to our normal way of life.

written by Greg Pasden
World Traveler, Author, Adventurer

CLICK on the "RSS Feed" for updates

RSS Feed