Flying Solo - Not to be Advised for Pilots or Counsellors

According to yesterday's The Independent newspaper, Ryanair's Chief Executive Michael O'Leary has said he will be writing to the aviation authorities to ask permission to use only one pilot per aircraft on short-haul flights.

Mr O'Leary's logic is that the additional co-pilot is superfluous in modern jets - and it will save his airline money to eject them. He went so far as to say that the second pilot was only there to "make sure the other fella didn't fall asleep and knock over the controls". Mr Leary backed up his argument by saying that trains only had a single driver, at times, and this could cause a crash if the driver had a heart attack.

He went on to say that in 25 years, wtih over 10 million flights, Ryanair had only one recorded incident of a pilot having a heart attack - and he managed to land the plane safely.

It got me thinking about counselling practice and the need for a "co-pilot" in the form of a clinical supervisor. Maybe it is just a waste of experienced and qualified personnel - not to mention the supervisee's hard-earned cash - to fly the "plane" - being the client in metaphorical terms.

After all, not many client's really "crash" that badly, do they? And when they do there's not really that much of a bang. I was once told that no one had ever been sued for counselling malpractice in Ireland - so let's face it, even if there is a crash the dust cloud will probably pass over our heads.

I hear of counsellors flying their own "planes" all of the time. I have even heard of counselling students who have never had the benefit of clinical supervision. So it must be OK to risk it alone in the therapeutic skies - mustn't it?

To Mr O'Leary: the day you stop putting co-pilots into your aircraft is the day I stop flying on your aircraft. It's unsafe, it's bad practice and two heads are far better than one. The passengers feel safer and the whole trip is likely to be smoother and less fraught with stress, anxiety and panic.

To all counsellors not using supervision - consider becoming cabin crew.