Cash-strapped airlines push for single pilot ops: It's a reckless idea

Booming demand for air travel comes up against shortage of aviators, forcing industry to cut corners.

It took just 23 seconds for Qantas Airways Ltd. Flight QF72 to drop 690 feet, throwing passengers into the ceiling midway through its journey from Singapore to Perth. 

Within five seconds, the Airbus A330 experienced forces equal to negative 0.8-times gravity switching to 1.56G, which must have felt first like the drop of a roller coaster followed by an acceleration faster than a sportscar. It was a harrowing experience that left more than 100 injured.

When the flight computer went “psycho,” as Captain Kevin Sullivan later described it, he had the second officer by his side and the first officer