AUSTRALIA Pilots making errors: memo Some Qantas pilots are making mistakes as they return from long breaks caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, an internal memo reported yesterday by Australian media said. Among the errors listed in Qantas pilot reports were starting takeoff with the parking brake on and misreading the altitude as airspeed, a report by the Sydney Morning Herald and the Age said. It also cited switches in cockpit panels being in the wrong position, and crew looking back at an event and “not realizing that they were overloaded or had lost situational awareness.” The memo by Qantas’ fleet operations chiefs reportedly said that the COVID-19 related disruption to flights meant pilots had less recent flight experience, a requirement known as “recency.” As a result, the memo is quoted as saying, expert pilots “experienced a subsequent reduction in cognitive capacity.”