Originally Posted by
11atsomto
I think you are very right to throw this out there. My company and I would imagine all of the companies that make up employers on this thread have the FAR 121.627 responsibility written into the FOM or equivalent. For those going to another tab to google, it is basically saying the the PIC cannot allow a flight to continue toward any airport for which it has been released if in the opinion of the captain the flight cannot be operated safely. Now I can tell you, having worked at JetBlue, the company really pushes the boundaries of that definition for every single flight to Port Au Prince……but I would Imagine a maritime equivalent exists for FAR 121.627.
It is a valid point, and reportedly one of the factors limiting current traffic.
But those crews operate in pirate-infested waters all the time, have for years in the modern era (for millennia, historically). It's just a matter of providing the right mitigation and potentially compensation.
Also aircrew are at quite a bit more risk from kinetic actions than 12 guys on a VLCC/ULCC... those things are *really* massive, so while they can suffer costly damage and potentially leak oil with really costly environmental consequences, they're not likely to sink and the crew isn't at anywhere near the same risk as aircrew.
Point being, long-term, global oil supply will not remain choked off because of crews... they'll be protected, incentivized, or replaced.