Originally Posted by
zgscl
So I recently flew DL from SLC-OAK on a completely full flight. When I boarded the flight, I noticed that there were three pilots in the cockpit, which I did not think anything of it as my understanding is that pilots deadhead all the time (and sometimes in the cockpit), or that someone could have been training.
When I left the plane I learned it was a WN pilot. I don't know that DL or WN let their crews deadhead on each other. Or if not, would DL have had a pilot paying for passage sit in the cockpit as opposed to IDBing another passenger?
Thanks!
Right after 9/11 the FAA came out with rules that you could only allow your own company's pilots to ride in the cockpit jumpseat. The intention was so that pilots who had been terminated but still had ID/Uniforms couldn't get unauthorized access to the cockpit jumpseat. It's very easy for DL to verify that a DL employee is a valid employee (and allowed cockpit jumpseat) using Deltamatic. However, at the same time, there was no way to verify a pilot from another carrier (since carriers can't access other carrier's systems), hence the restriction. Very quickly, this was amended to allow the carriers regional partners (i.e. OO) access as well (since their pilots are also in Deltamatic). I've been away from the security side of the business for a while, but I understand there's now a "Clearing House" type system now that can verify pilots from all major carriers. So a DL agent can run a WN pilots ID and verify his cockpit jumpseat clearance real time.