I N T H E CO C K P I T weeks after, so they supplied a car to go to and from Southampton, a few good meals and events. They werent pressuring me to come back. In my time, the panacea if anything happened to you when you were working at BA was that they would send you on holiday. Theyd say: Heres the BA holidays brochure, take your pick! In a recent interview in The Sunday Times, Christian Scherer, Airbus Chief Executive of Commercial Aircraft, suggested it was almost inevitable that airliners with just one pilot will be developed in the future. Thank goodness there were two of you and several crew members on that day. BALPA is currently campaigning Perhaps on a normal day you could get away with just one pilot, but you just dont know against reducing crew do you have any thoughts on this? I think, in the future, it will probably be a man or woman and a dog! But, all jokes aside, I cant see it happening. You cant cater for the unexpected. Perhaps on a normal day you could get away with just one pilot, but you just dont know. Airbus has had lots of unusual ideas over the years. The Airbus wasnt originally going to have thrust levers. How they proposed taxiing around like that, Ive no idea. Not to mention, what the passenger reaction would be; who would want to get on a no-crew airliner? You went on to fly for quite a few more years after your recovery. Over your career, which was your favourite aircraft? The 400 Jumbo was probably my favourite. The 707 was quite a handful I always felt like it was flying me. I probably only did 50 or 60 landings in it. I even quite grew to love the Airbus by the end! What would you say to someone just starting out on their aviation career? What I used to say to my team was what youve got to remember is this job becomes routine, and therein lies the danger. When you get up in the morning, youve got to tell yourself todays the day its going to happen to me. Talking with Tim and Margaret has been fascinating. Hearing about the heroic actions of the entire crew on that fateful day is something I will never forget. As this interview conveys, Tim is made of strong stuff, and an event such as this would have been enough to keep even the bravest of us from returning to the flight deck. It is such a joy to hear that, even now, Tim is happiest with his head among the clouds. He is also a keen campanologist and, after this interview, went to ring the bells at his local church. The flight crew The incident has been recounted as Tim recalls it. 44 THE LOG Sum 24 pp40-44 Cockpit Conversations.indd 44 13/06/2024 12:41