Some airline pilots across the country are admitting to making mistakes after taking months off of flying due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Dozens of pilots and flight attendants are anonymously reporting incidents via the Aviation Safety Reporting System, a federally funded system that collects voluntarily submitted incident reports from pilots, controllers and other aviation staff.
Many of the mistakes have been small errors, but Bloomberg reports there is concern they could lead to a huge disaster. Uwe Harter, the executive vice president for technical and safety standards at the International Federation of Air Line Pilots' Associations, told the publication that the recent reports are a "really critical situation."
"The last thing the industry needs now is a bad accident," Harter told Bloomberg.
One pilot back in April said they mistakenly took off from an airport's taxiway instead of the runway. The pilot said he hadn't flown in seven months due to COVID.
Another pilot a month later admitted to flying way above the altitude they were supposed to be at, claiming they were a little rusty due to the "COVID shutdown."
The pandemic halted much of the world's air travel, forcing airlines to cut down on the number of pilots. According to the consultancy company Oliver Wyman, in March, nearly 100,000 pilots were flying less than usual or were on voluntary leave.
However, tourism and air travel are back on the rise, and many pilots are once again being called back to work.
According to Bloomberg, airlines are retraining pilots. However, Harter said, "the regulations that we have aren't sufficient."