Senators Urge Transportation Secretary to Oppose Single-Pilot Flights

Group says advocacy at the ICAO is critical for maintaining safety.

Zach Vasile

Friday, July 25, 2025 at 04:30 PM ET

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Edited By:

Travis Tingle

Flight deck of an Airbus aircraft [Credit: Shutterstock]

Key Takeaways:

A bipartisan group of 45 U.S. senators is urging Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy to strongly oppose proposals for single-pilot commercial passenger flights, citing significant safety concerns.
The senators advocate for the U.S. to actively counter reduced crew standards at international aviation forums, such as the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), emphasizing that technology cannot replace the safety redundancy of two human pilots.
The Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) supports the senators' position, warning that any erosion of international pilot staffing standards would ultimately undermine U.S. air safety.

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A group of 45 U.S. senators is urging Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy to take a firmer stand against efforts to examine and test out proposals for having a single pilot operate commercial passenger flights.

In a letter sent to Duffy on Thursday, the lawmakers said the U.S. should use international forums like the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a specialized agency of the United Nations, to push back on proposals that would reduce minimum air crew requirements. Current U.S. policy dictates that no certified airline can operate an airplane “with less than the minimum flight crew,” and that the “minimum flight crew is two pilots.”