by any warning. According to the “Two Communications Rule”, you are deemed to be incapacitated if you do not respond appropriately to a second verbal communication associated with a significant deviation from a standard operating procedure or flight profile. So there. Operational Procedures 119 Partial or Gradual This bit concerns any medical symptoms affecting your handling ability, to the extent that you have to hand over control. These might include severe pain (especially sudden severe headache or chest pain), dizziness, blurring or partial loss of vision, disorientation, vomiting or diarrhoea (airline food again!). Temporary symptoms often indicate more severe illness, so don't be tempted to take control again. Two pilot You must immediately inform the other pilot and hand over control, then inform the destination, base or whoever else and divert, bearing in mind the nature and severity of the symptoms and the availability of medical facilities. Naturally, as with any emergency, the company would prefer you to carry on (minimum inconvenience to the passengers) or return to base (minimum inconvenience to them), but appendicitis waits for no man! You should not take control again, and your harness must be locked to stop you falling over the controls if you get worse. Neither must you fly again (as a crew member, at least) until a medical examination has taken place, or, with diarrhoea or vomiting, you’ve had no symptoms for 24 hours. Single pilot You should react before any illness becomes severe enough to affect your handling, so an immediate radio call is essential. The first consideration must be for the safety of the passengers, so medical assistance for you must be a lesser priority, though the former may well depend on the latter. Sudden or Complete This may be subtle or overt, and give no warning; Murphy's Law dictates that fatal collapses occur during approach and landing, close to the ground. Detection of subtle incapacitation may be indirect, that is, only as a result of some expected action not being taken, so when you die maintaining your body position, the other pilot may not even notice until the expected order of events becomes interrupted. Two pilot Crew members should closely monitor the flight path, especially in the critical stages of take-off, initial climb, final approach and landing, and immediately question any deviations. The fit pilot should assume control, assuming the controls are not interfered with, which is why you should always wear full harness, which should be locked in place and the seat slid back if there is any trouble, as a matter of priority (use passengers or other crew to help if required). First aid should be delayed until the immediate problems have been sorted out, then the aircraft should be landed as soon as practicable. 120 Operational Flying Cabin Safety How to handle passengers in general is very much a matter of Company policy. Some like to be spoken to, some don't, but there are some small attentions you can give without being obtrusive. Just going round checking seat belts and doors helps (never trust a passenger to shut doors properly), as is a look over your shoulder before take-off and occasionally during the flight. People new to flying are fairly obvious, and they may not appreciate such commonplace occurrences (to you, anyway) as noise, turbulence, pressure changes, strange noises from the front (stall warnings, gear coming up and down, etc.), or lack of toilets. However, the ANO imposes on you the responsibility for the safety and well-being of your passengers. You will find you are supposed to brief them before every flight, or at least take all reasonable steps to do so, |