My Airline is in the News Again!

oldman

oldman

Well-known Member
Location
PA
This time, one of United’s Captains allowed a hitting coach from the Colorado Rockies to enter and sit in the first officer’s seat while pictures were taken of him simulating messing with the controls. The plane was flying at its cruising altitude with the autopilot engaged.

This is against FAA rules, whether it’s a commercial flight or a charter flight the same rules apply. I have flown many different teams on charter flights and people have asked me to allow their kid or wife/girlfriend in the cockpit and sit in mine or the first officer’s seat. I apologize and tell them I’m sorry, but the FAA doesn’t allow it and if I did allow it, that could cost me my job. Most understand, but I did have a couple that even offered me money to allow it. Sorry, I can’t be bought. My job means too much to me.
 

I have a photo somewhere of my 4-month-old daughter in 1971 sitting in the pilot's seat of a PanAm 747. Actually, it's a photo of a pilot's hat with her legs sticking out. I didn't get to go up but she was taken up by a crew member for a visit and I was given a Polaroid photo of the occasion.

Of course, there were fewer than two dozen passengers on the entire flight from London to New York....yep, on a 747.

I'm told she didn't try to fly the plane and, in fact, slept the whole time.
 
fuzzybuddy said:
There's nothing that changes behavior like a lawsuit. Maybe if passengers could sue a pilot/airlines for endangering their lives by disregarding safety issues??????
I think dealing with lawyers is the 5th, or 6th level of hell? :unsure:
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In one of the plays written by William Shakespear there is a line that goes ..."First we will kill all the lawyers ". JimB.
 
jujube said:
I have a photo somewhere of my 4-month-old daughter in 1971 sitting in the pilot's seat of a PanAm 747. Actually, it's a photo of a pilot's hat with her legs sticking out. I didn't get to go up but she was taken up by a crew member for a visit and I was given a Polaroid photo of the occasion.

Of course, there were fewer than two dozen passengers on the entire flight from London to New York....yep, on a 747.

I'm told she didn't try to fly the plane and, in fact, slept the whole time.
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If the pane is still sitting at the gate with the wheels chocked, some pilots will allow only the child to enter the cockpit and the pilot will snap the picture. I remember back in my early days, we would also give the child a set of plastic gold wings to wear. Quite often, we would have both boys and girls hold onto their wings like they were made out of gold. Those were the fun times. Seeing the smiling faces on the kids made my day.
 
fuzzybuddy said:
There's nothing that changes behavior like a lawsuit. Maybe if passengers could sue a pilot/airlines for endangering their lives by disregarding safety issues??????
I think dealing with lawyers is the 5th, or 6th level of hell? :unsure:
Click to expand...
There was an incident in Russia where a pilot that was a Captain and flying a brand new Airbus had his brother and his two kids onboard. As a surprise, the brother brought the kids to the cockpit to surprise dad. Dad allowed his daughter ti first sit in his seat, which the Captain always sits in the left seat and he changed teh course slightly in the auto autopilot to make the girl believe she was controlling the flight pattern.

Next, he put the boy in his seat. His son always wanted to be a pilot. Unknowingly, the son disengaged the autopilot and his dad had taken a slight break and was also unaware that the autopilot had been turned off. This is hard for me to believe because when the autopilot is disengaged, it will give out an aural signal to alert the pilots that they are now in control of the plane.

No one knew what had happened and the plane lost altitude very quickly crashing and killing all aboard. Here is a 4 minute YouTube of the accident.
 
oldman said:
I would, but they won't allow me.
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Maybe just put on your uniform and get on a plane. There’s always a chance no one will notice. Of course if you get caught, you will probably spend time in a Federal prison. I will come and visit if it’s not too far away. Lewisburg is still open, but the name has been changed to FCI Lewisburg. The prison was downgraded to a medium security prison with a minimum security satellite camp.

I have been there several times to transport prisoners back when it was a maximum security prison. My most famous prisoner that I transported was Jimmy Hoffa. Man, can that guy talk and eat.
 

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