Are Two Pilots Safer Than One?

Nearly 90 percent of the approximately 217,000 U.S.-registered general aviation aircraft are flown by one pilot. These 195,000 airframes include piston- and turboprop-powered single and twin engine aircraft used for business, training and pleasure. These figures also include the growing segments of light single- and twin-engine business jets that have been permitted to be flown by one pilot. 

Hence, single-pilot aircraft have the most accidents and incidents simply because of the sheer number in the air. Notably, single-pilot training and pleasure flights have more accidents than single-pilot business flights. Nevertheless, regardless of the number of pilots in the cockpit, the probable cause in more than 80 percent of all general aviation accidents and incidents is pilot error. 

Statistics show that aircraft flown by their owners have a greater proportion of accidents compared to the same type of  aircraft being flown by a single career or salaried pilot (a person whose occupation it is to fly). Some owner pilots hire a qualified safety pilot who sits in the copilot seat to assist and monitor. But there are no statistics available to determine if this "two-pilot" option has prevented an accident or reduced its severity. 

Owner pilots are not required to be FAA certified beyond a private pilot status, although they must have a multi-engine rating to fly twin-engine aircraft, a type-certificate for a single-pilot jet, and an instrument rating to fly in inclement weather. Career or salaried airmen must hold at least a commercial pilot certificate to be hired as a paid pilot. Initial and recurrent training, recent experience, and medical requirements to maintain the validity of a commercial certificate are more stringent than they are for private pilot certificates. 

To be clear, plenty of owner pilots have advanced certifications for personal efficiency, but if they do not keep them current with the medical, training, and other associated requirements, they are legally are limited to private pilot privileges. Meanwhile, the overall greater reliability of turboprop-powered business aircraft flown by a single-pilot generally have fewer mishaps than their piston counterparts.  

When examining the accident statistics involving just business jets flown by one qualified pilot, the data shows that the same models of business jets flown by two qualified pilots experience nearly an equal share of accidents, many of them under similar circumstances (such as runway overruns) and with the same degree of injuries.  

Interestingly, Europe' aviation safety authority (EASA) recently paused its long-time research into allowing single-pilot operations on airliners, concluding that "additional changes to the cockpit will be needed to support the concept of single-pilot operations."

Certainly, most corporate jet passengers perceive having two qualified pilots as providing a higher level of safety than having one pilot. Even if accident statistics didn't support this perception, many flight departments limit their single-pilot missions to maintenance or ferry flights. Consider the data and you make the call.