How often does a pilot declare an emergency landing in his 20 year-career?

Question

How often does a pilot declare an emergency landing in his 20 year-career?

Answer 1

I've been a pilot for 4 years now. Never declared an emergency.  Had really good training, and keep up to date on emergency procedures, etc.  Don't ever expect to have to declare an emergency.

Answer 2

Less than once on average.

Answer 3

Depends on what and where you're flying.  Pretty rare for a commercial airliner compared to an old bush plane.

Sombody needs to check into the safety of simulators though, it seems like everytime I get into one there's an engine or instrument failure.

Answer 4

A pilot with an emergency deals with it however he needs to.  That's allowed.  That's expected.  He doesn't need to "declare" anything.

Answer 5

I've been flying for about 12 years and have never had to declare an emergency.  I've had some problems where I've run on a backup system, but that's exactly why there are backup systems.

I do have friends who have had several emergencies over the last 15 years, but they were flying small (2 to 4 seat) propeller planes, not modern turbine-powered passenger planes.

I do concur with the others regarding the simulators though... I usually have to declare about 5 emergencies per hour in the simulators.  With a reliability record like that, I have no idea why I keep on going back to them every 6 months...

Answer 6

I have seen aircraft with a engine shut down and not declare a emergency. Everytime a large commercial A/C calls an emergency it will be investigated. You do get the rare one that will be published.

Answer 7

Barely ever!

Someone once said "A pilots job is complete boredom punctuated by moments of sheer terror."

Answer 8

Haha I like Matt's quote. He's right, though. In developed countries, where maintenance personnel is competent and well-governed, the rate is very small, since sometimes these incidents are not maintenance related. Now, that's speaking in purely commercial terms. If you account for private aviation, it happens a lot more often.

Since I started flying 6 years ago, I've had to make two emergency landings. One was due to a bird strike, one was due to a clogged air filter (the back-up didn't engage for whatever reason). Flying commercial has never given me trouble.

Answer 9

I flew professionally for 37 years, and never had an in-flight emergency.  It's very rare.