Can a Boeing 747 be flown alone or is a copilot required?

No, a 747 cannot be flown alone. This answer is a little long, read it for a better understanding of the rules.

Not only because it isn’t permitted by regulation but also because most of these large airliners, starting from the a Boeing 737 right up to an Airbus A380 are very combusome for just 1 pilot to handle. The controls are extensive and detailed and for one pilot to handle controls, radio telephony, frequency monitoring, tracking, verification, DR and Autopilot Monitoring is practically impossible.

Then of course, there’s the concern of man on man redundancy. As a rule of thumb, most aviation regulatory authorities like the FAA in the US or DGCA in India are aligned on the rules when it comes to things like crew requirements, especially since an Indian Aircraft will often fly over and land into American Airports and vice versa. They need‘standardization.’

Another interesting rule of thumb to remember is, if the AUW (All up weight) of an aircraft exceeds 5750 kgs, in almost any country, you can assume it requires 2 cockpit crew members.

Now let’s talk rules.

Three things to remember here:

1. Manufacturer Requirements
2. Regulator Requirements
3. Operator Requirements

1. Manufacturer Requirements

Manufacturer requirements are prescribed by Boeing or Airbus or whoever the manufacturer of the aircraft is. For a Boeing 747, the manufacturer prescribes a minimum of 2 cockpit crew members. The Regulator and Operator generally will NOT breach this prescription since it affects the aircraft’s warranty and insurance.

2. Regulator Requirements

The regulator is country specific, like the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) in the USA, Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) in the UK and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) in India. All airlines registered and operating in a specific country are responsible to their OWN regulator.

A regulator will generally NOT breach a manufacturer requirement. Furthermore, a regulator will also generall NOT exceed the manufacturer requirement. Hence most regulatory authorities around the world say 2 cockpit crew members for the 747.

3. Operator Requirements

Based on Manufacturer and Regulator Requirements, the operator, which is the airline, like Jet, American, Etihad etc. will prescribe their own minimum which cannot be below both the Manufactuer and Regulator requirements. Since an airline is a business and they want to keep the employee team as lean as possible, they generally prescribe 2.