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Actually, for commercial airliners its "worse". They require both a pilot and co-pilot behind the yoke, even in autopilot.

If an airliner is flown with less than two crew in the cockpit, even for a short period of time, the remaining pilot/co-pilot must wear a mask when flying above 25,000ft.




Airliners used to have a third crew member, the Flight Engineer, but that job has been automated into oblivion.


A friend mentioned that non-scheduled (no passengers or commercial freight) flights in large aircraft (eg. 737) can still operate with a single-pilot and a rated flight engineer only. The pilot had to have her mask on (or clipped to the helmet) for the entire flight. This option is rarely done commercially, obviously.




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