First officer (aviation)

The first officer or co-pilot is the second pilot on board an aircraft in civil aviation and is directly below the pilot in command (captain, commander) in the command hierarchy specified by the airline. A special case is the senior first officer, who on some long-haul flights takes over responsibility for the aircraft in cruise flight when the commander takes a break. This officer in turn is superior to the First Officer in the hierarchy, who may then also be called Second Officer. In some airlines, the term "second officer" is also used for pilots in practical training.

If the captain is not present on the ground or is unable to act during the flight, the co-pilot assumes responsibility for the aircraft, crew and passengers as deputy.

As a rule, the flight captain is allowed to actively delegate parts of his duties and tasks to the first officer. This applies in particular to the planning and execution of a flight segment and is regular practice with most airlines. The first officer assumes the role of pilot flying and thus control of the aircraft. In this case, the captain assumes the role of pilot not flying, i.e., assumes radio communications with ground offices and makes gear changes at the pilot flying's request. The commander oversees the safe conduct of the flight; legal responsibility remains with him. As a rule, the captain and the first officer take turns as flying pilot during the course of a day's operations in order to distribute the workload evenly and to give everyone the opportunity to remain in practice.

All members of a cockpit crew are equally qualified to perform flights in normal and abnormal situations. However, the commander is usually the most experienced crew member.

If a first officer is obtained by an airline through transfer from another airline or from the military, he or she may have more flight experience than the captain because of previous assignments.

Many airlines have special restrictions and safety regulations for inexperienced co-pilots (low time F/O).

The place of the first officer is traditionally on the right side of the cockpit in airplanes and on the left side in helicopters. This is legally regulated in Germany in the air traffic regulations.