Definition
The personnel assigned to operate an aircraft in flight, including the pilot or pilots and, depending on the aircraft and operation, other crew members such as flight engineers, navigators, or cabin crew with operational duties.
Plain English
The people whose job is to fly and run the aircraft while it is in the air.
Context Anchor
Seen in FAA material when discussing how procedures, systems, or flight information affect the people operating the aircraft.
Derivation
From 'air' plus 'crew.' 'Crew' comes from the Old French 'creue,' meaning a band of people gathered for a task, originally a military reinforcement. The word reinforces that flying is a team activity, not a solo one — even in a single-pilot aircraft, the term frames the operator as part of a defined operational role.
Why Pilots Care
Many regulations, procedures, and NextGen capabilities (like data communications and required navigation performance) assign specific responsibilities to the aircrew as distinct from controllers or dispatchers. Knowing when a rule applies to 'the aircrew' tells you who is accountable.
Intuition Check
Do not read “aircrew” as everyone inside the airplane. It means the assigned people with duties on the flight, not the passengers.
Example Sentence 1
The aircrew reviewed the arrival procedure before beginning the descent.
Example Sentence 2
NextGen tools are meant to ease the aircrew workload in busy airspace.