Michael O'Leary claimed that air stewardesses could instead be trained to land an aircraft in the event of an emergency.
In an interview with Bloomberg BusinessWeek magazine, Mr O’Leary, who has previously suggested that planes could fly with “standing-only” areas for passengers, said: “Why does every plane have two pilots?
“Really, you only need one pilot. Let’s take out the second pilot. Let the b----- computer fly it.”
When asked what would happen if the single pilot fell ill while flying a plane, he said: “If the pilot has an emergency, he rings the bell, he calls her in. She could take over.”
The idea has been ridiculed by pilots, who questioned Mr O’Leary’s commitment to passenger safety.

They're essentially trying to get pilots on the cheap - primary job is air stewardess, hence gets paid air stewardess salary. But if there's an emergency, they can act as back-up pilot. Means saves on not having a second pilot.

This has already been done in the NHS - you have a billion people trying to do the work of a doctor, with a little more pay but none of the responsibility. After all, it's cheaper than training doctors, so it must be right(!).






And it's why people are dying. There are some very good nurse practitioners, nurse consultants, advanced clinical practitioners, physician assistants etc but the majority (>95%) are crap. They're all doing the jobs of junior doctors. Except it doesn't take as much to pay them (six week course as opposed to 5-6 years medical school). Consequently, junior doctors get less exposure and less experience - so you'll end up with crap consultants who have about a tenth of the experience of an old-school consultant.

Nobody figured out that he just does this every now and then to get free publicity?

It'll be the same as the seatless flights, Ryanair officials will later come out and say it's just an idea that they're not going to implement.

If I was cabin crew trained to land a jet, I'd get a better paied job as a co-pilot with another airline.

But nurses now have to have degrees to get even started. I would prefer a unqualified nurse who has empathy and cares over some educated nurse who thinks that the ill are all malingerers.

Nursing IMO is something that never needed a degree but could be learnt as a diploma of some kind. I think it became a degree so it was taken more seriously and recognised as a profession.

I've seen some fantastic care from nurses and some shockingly crap care from nurses. Ditto with doctors.

Yes but can this help? Compromising safety for a few extra quid off the air fare? Years ago there used to be flight engineers in the cockpit as well.

But that's my point, they have no intention doing this it just gets lots of free publicity on prime time TV.

But that's my point, they have no intention doing this it just gets lots of free publicity on prime time TV.