this post was submitted on 11 Sep 2025
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Not a pilot, so of course I don't know the kind of pressure in the cabin, but I would've guess it was normal?
Like I wouldn't exxpect someone to be 100% vigilant 100% of the time, especially in long duration flights. That's why there's two pilots, if you are ona clear sky, no turbulence, perfectly calm conditions, I wouldn't see much of a differrnce in them relaxing and chatting over coffee or just a 15 minutes power nap (not on 1 and a half hours long journey of course)
I used to do design work on intra-aircraft information systems. Commercial airliners are almost entirely automated; I'd be comfortable with the pilot taking off, immediately falling asleep till just before landing, then waking up to land. Even if they are awake during the flight, 99.9% of the time the correct action for a pilot is "let autopilot cook." Even in those 0.1% other situations, the cockpit has like 15 or 20 different systems lovingly referred to by aircrew as "bitching betty" to sound loud annoying alarms and flash bright lights at the pilots if the any part of the plane needs attention for any reason.
From what I have heard one of the main reasons is to monitor the other pilot for incapacitation.
It would be bad to be locked out by bullet proof doors when the other pilot got a heart attack
Yeah, a hearth attack is an extreme case, but tiredness would be a pretty likely and frequent cause of incapacitation in my opinion.
When your fireplace has it in for you.