Do pilots have to wear a mask in the cockpit?

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis, or at least since more is known about the virus, the wearing of masks on airplanes has become the rule for passengers and staff.

However, the rule is not as absolute as that since the obligation is not always legal. Yes, the WHO recommends wearing a mask, but no one can be punished for not obeying the WHO.

We have seen it in the United States: in the absence of a law imposing the wearing of masks, the airlines have the greatest difficulty in the world to be obeyed by some recalcitrant passengers.

On the other hand, in Europe, many countries, including France and the United Kingdom, have imposed the wearing of masks in transport, which includes air travel.

A priori it is the same. Whether it is a law or a simple directive of the airline, the result is the same: the crew is the only master on board and whoever does not obey the orders of the crew can be disembarked (for example on the famous subject of the closing of the window shades)or even sanctioned afterwards. And all airlines nowadays ask passengers and crew to wear the mask. It is simply easier to be respected when there is a law behind it and the person risks a fine, whereas some people do not recognize the authority of the crew as easily.

If for the crews the wearing of the mask poses absolutely no question or problem, many of you have asked us if it was also the case in the cockpit.

[MAJ] the EASA (European Aviation Safety Agency) has established a protocol which clearly states (p25) that for security reasons “Face masks shall not be worn by the crew in the crew compartment after boarding and during operations for safety reasons” ... But this only applies to Europe. For the record (see below), ICAO only mentions the possibility of removing the mask, whereas EASA is more incisive in its formulation.

Not wearing a mask in the cockpit raises questions and concerns

If for some it is a matter of simple curiosity there are people who are worried about not wearing a mask in the cockpit and not only among the passengers. In this document of the ALPA pilots union you will see page 9 (Airline 11) that some crew members were surprised and worried to learn that once the cockpit door was closed, the pilots dropped the mask.

5/27/2020 Report: I feel like the airline does a good job of providing face masks.
The health problem does not concern the airline but rather the flight crew who do not wear masks. Masks do not only protect the wearer. They mainly protect the people around the person wearing the mask. Therefore, if the commander chooses not to wear a mask even if the first officer does, the first officer is still at risk.

I spoke with another co-pilot who flew in May and he says the masks are taken off as soon as the cockpit doors close.
If I bring the virus back from work I have family members who may be hospitalized or
worse because of the virus.

I’m on standby in June. How can I protect myself if the crew members
do not choose to wear a mask? I understand that the union’s specialty is mediation with the company, but what if the problem is within our own ranks because people don’t research/understand how wearing masks is an effective tool to mitigate this virus?

As far as we can find there are no official guidelines on what to wear in the cockpit. In the airport and in the cabin things are clear: the mask is mandatory for all. But in the cockpit there is a kind of gray area.

[MAJ] Professionals inform us that the ICAO prohibits the use of masks in the cockpit. For the moment the only source we have found only mentions the possibility of removing the mask, not its prohibition (see below).

No mask in the cockpit but only among pilots

So to be sure, we asked some pilots who confirmed this. Once in the cockpit, pilots remove their masks (except for those who insist on keeping them on) but only when they are alone and the cockpit door is closed. Each time the door opens to let a crew member in (to serve them a meal for example) they put wear it again.

This seems to make a lot of sense in the end and we’ll explain why.

The cockpit is a “safe” place by nature

I will not dwell on the fact that the cockpit has of course the same air renewal and filtering system as the rest of the cabin, which is much more efficient than what we find in other places and means of transport.

In the opinion of many, once seated, the distance between the chairs is sufficient to guarantee a minimum of safety. But, above all, the pilots always look in front of them, almost never face each other, do not talk face to face, do not look at each other (except in case of a problem, but we will talk about this later). This may seem obvious given their role, but it must be remembered.

We can therefore consider that in the cockpit social distancing is effective in principle.

Pilots must react quickly in case of an incident

In case of depressurization, smoke emission and in general in case of doubt as to the good oxygenation of the air or the presence of toxic substances, the pilots are required to wear an oxygen mask, just like the passengers.

Such circumstances are very rare, but when they do occur, the difference between a flight that ends well and a flight that turns into a tragedy is the speed of reaction. Anything that reduces the time needed to put on the oxygen mask should be avoided. So removing the mask to put on the oxygen mask is a risk-increasing factor in the event of an incident.

In the same way, pilots are equipped with Portable Breathing Equipment (PBE) which allows them to move around in a depressurized or smoky cabin, for example to extinguish a fire or to carry out safety checks following an incident.

Here again it is speed that counts and the difference between a well managed incident and a tragedy can be played out in a few seconds of reaction time of the driver. So again, taking off one mask to put on another is a risk-increasing factor.

[MAJ] Confirmed by our professional readers: the oxygen mask must be put on in less than 5 seconds, which makes it impossible to wear the “anti COVID” mask.

Does the mask alter the pilot’s ability to fly?

While some have tried to argue that wearing a mask at ground level for too long could cause asphyxiation, it has been shown that this is highly unlikely if not impossible. But what about in flight where oxygen is scarce?

At ground level we breathe air with 21% oxygen. By plane this level is maintained until 2400m and then drops above. Today in modern airplanes, at their cruising altitude, the air breathed contains about as much oxygen as that breathed at 2400m in “normal” conditions like in the mountains.

In other words, there is absolutely no danger in itself, except for people suffering from certain respiratory diseases.

On the other hand, some people wonder if the mask is an aggravating factor and, if so, if the importance of the pilots for the smooth running of the flight (!) means that an acceptable risk for a passenger is not acceptable for them.

The fact is that there is no valid study on the subject to date (and if you find one, we’ll take it). On the other hand, a study was conducted on surgeons working in the operating room. It does not deal with the effects of altitude but with the wearing of a mask in a stressful work situation requiring high concentration. It was conducted by the and you can find the results here.

The study shows that oxygen saturation (SPO2) decreases and heart rate increases for surgeons who operate with masks compared to the same individuals when not wearing masks. This phenomenon is amplified in people over the age of 35.

Heart beating faster, less oxygen in the blood, this means that the capacities of the pilots would be altered by the only wearing of the mask, independently of the altitude which we can moreover see as an aggravating factor.

Not so fast.

The study compares people in a “normal situation” without a mask and when they operate with a mask. There are no measurements of an operation performed without a mask because this is forbidden and therefore does not exist.

No bottom line can be drawn from this study because, according to his own words, it is not known whether the decrease in oxygen saturation and the increase in heart rate are due to the wearing of a mask or simply to the fact of performing an operation ! And if both contribute, we don’t know in what proportions.

There is therefore no scientific evidence to date that wearing a mask alters pilots’ abilities more than the “normal” stress and concentration associated with certain sequences of their job.

Afterwards, you are free to think that the precautionary principle should be applied or not.

The mask increases the risk of accidents

Last week we talked about CRM (Crew Resource Management) and it was not a coincidence. Good communication/collaboration between pilots is essential for a safe flight. Or, to put it another way, while the equipment is more and more reliable and efficient, the computer systems more and more advanced and the pilots better and better trained, the main risk today lies in the way the humans interact with each other during the flight.

Wearing a mask “breaks” the CRM insofar as in case of a problem a sailor cannot perceive the facial expressions of another just by looking at him. He cannot see the expressions on his face that may at some point translate a difficulty, a problem, an uneasiness that will not always be verbalized. Of course, the person only has to express himself, but in terms of security, the issue is precisely to avoid any reason to lose focus when managing a difficult situation.

It is also possible that a crew member does not talk about his difficulty or his concern, something that his face will betray. So of course if the CRM rules are respected such a situation should not happen. But in practice, humans remain fallible and such a case is plausible. In the same vein, the co-pilot of Asiana Flight 214 that crashed in San Francisco should have alerted the pilot and performed a go-around when he realized that the pilot was leading the plane to its doom, but he did not do so simply because the other was his superior. Two precautions are always better than one.

[MAJ] ICAO says that pilots can remove their masks in the cockpit for safety reasons (point 7.5).

Of all the reasons given for the proper functioning of the CRM, this is the one I had spontaneously thought of before writing this article. Not that the others are not as critical in the event of a problem, but because they are less likely to occur while the CRM, the communication in the cockpit must work well all the time and not only when things go wrong.

So the next time you fly, be aware that pilots will most likely remove their masks once they are alone in the cockpit and that this will have no impact on your safety. On the contrary, it improves it.

Photo : pilotes with a mask in the cockpit by Safuan Salahudin via Shutterstock

Bertrand Duperrin
Bertrand Duperrinhttp://www.duperrin.com
Compulsive traveler, present in the French #avgeek community since the late 2000s and passionate about (long) travel since his youth, Bertrand Duperrin co-founded Travel Guys with Olivier Delestre in March 2015.
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