The monitoring system (1) is used for detecting an incapacitation of the pilot of an aircraft, said aircraft being equipped with a piloting device (40) which can be actuated manually by the pilot. Same includes: at least one pressure sensor integrating a contact sensor (11, 12) mounted on the surface of the piloting device (40), so as to generate an elementary indicator when a pressure exerted by the pilot on the piloting device is adapted to the use of the piloting device; and a computing unit (2) programmed for processing the elementary indicator delivered by the pressure sensor and for determining a current state of the pilot and, when said current state corresponds to an incapacitation of the pilot, for issuing an alarm.