Recent aviation incidents have once again turned attention towards the people in the cockpit. While investigations continue into what went wrong, pilots say the job involves far more than simply taking off, flying and landing an aircraft.
For passengers, a flight begins at the airport gate and ends when the wheels touch the runway. For those in the cockpit, however, the work begins much earlier, with weather reports, aircraft checks, fuel calculations and route planning. “It is not like you come and sit in the cockpit and switch on the autopilot,” says Delhi-based commercial pilot Arjun Pasricha.
Before an early-morning flight, pilots can be awake hours before passengers arrive at the airport. Pasricha describes working through extensive documentation, calculating passenger and baggage weights, checking fuel requirements, weather conditions and runway information.
“We are always calculating ahead and the present all together,” he says.
The cockpit is not a 9-to-5 office
The irregular hours are among the less visible challenges of the profession. “The most difficult thing would be odd hours, less rest, different time zones, not being able to socialise as much with your friends,” says Bengaluru-based pilot Marc Dhillon. For cargo pilot Danish, also from Bengaluru, night flying has meant adjusting to a routine where weekends and holidays do not always remain his own. Christmas and New Year, he says, can become just another working day.
The schedule can also make maintaining relationships and a social life difficult, as pilots constantly move between early mornings, late nights and time away from home. For pilot Dhruv, a life outside aviation is just as important. “If you don't have hobbies and a life beyond flying, your identity will be lost into being just a pilot,” he says.
When personal life stays outside the cockpit
The demands are not only physical. Pilots also have to manage their emotions while operating an aircraft carrying hundreds of passengers. “There may be times when I may not be in the right zone, but I cannot let that take over my head and compromise the safety of the aircraft and the passengers,” Pasricha says. For Dhillon, the expectation is equally straightforward: personal problems have to be left outside the cockpit door.
The recent aviation incidents have made that responsibility feel more immediate for some pilots. Danish says the Ahmedabad crash affected him personally. “The pilots did what they could till the end”, he says. For someone who spends his working life in an aircraft, he says, it is difficult not to think about the pressure faced by pilots when something goes wrong, and decisions have to be made within seconds.
What pilots make of the scrutiny
The recent incidents have also prompted pilots to reflect on how aviation safety is understood by the public.
Pasricha believes aviation is built around multiple layers of checks, procedures and training. Incidents, he says, cannot be completely eliminated, but the industry constantly learns from them. He compares aviation safety to a series of safeguards, where several gaps would have to line up for an incident to occur. The focus, therefore, should not only be on one individual but also on understanding where procedures, systems or human decisions may have failed.
Jeevan, another Delhi-based commercial pilot, believes the recent focus on drug testing is understandable, but says the technical aspects of the Phuket-Delhi incident should also receive attention.
He says pilots should not use psychoactive substances because anything that distracts them from flying can have consequences. At the same time, he feels that public attention on the drug-test result should not become the only lens through which the incident is viewed.
Dhruv sees the issue from a wider industry perspective. In his view, increasing competition and the low-cost model have changed how airlines operate, with greater emphasis on aircraft utilisation and quick turnarounds. He believes this has made the job more fast-paced and demanding for pilots.
Two pilots, one decision
Inside the cockpit, communication can be as important as technical knowledge.
While the captain has the final authority, pilots are trained to communicate, monitor each other and speak up when they believe something needs to be questioned. “There is always a hesitation for any new pilot,” Pasricha says. But sometimes, he adds, “you have to be able to question.”
For Jeevan, that ability to work with the person beside you becomes particularly important when something goes wrong. “Even if we have a failure, our coordination is the main thing required for a safe flight,” he says.
That exchange is part of Crew Resource Management, where pilots work as a team rather than treating the cockpit as a one-person command centre. Jeevan says having a good interpersonal relationship between the captain and co-pilot is essential, even when there are differences in experience or authority.
The responsibility is significant. As Dhillon puts it, “around 200 people may be depending on the two people sitting at the front”.
Reaching them to safety
For all the sacrifices, the responsibility of the job is also what makes it meaningful for pilots. Dhruv says the impact of his work is visible every time he looks at the passengers he is carrying.
For pilots, the glamour may begin with the uniform and the view from above the clouds, but the job ultimately comes down to the lives entrusted to them.
“Every day I get to see the lives that are impacted,” he says. “Every day I am responsible for the safety of this many lives, and I’m getting them home or getting them to their new life or whatever it is, I’m responsible or in some kind of way, part of their journey.”