Selfies From the Flight Deck Land Pilot in Hot Water
Jeff Edwards November 19, 2014
A pilot’s passion for social media has stirred up controversy, raising safety and security concerns at Jet Airways.
Over-sharing on social media can often result in embarrassment for all parties involved, and for those whose jobs involve some form of responsibility for public safety, that embarrassment can quickly turn into scandal. Jet Airways pilot Sahil Arora is at the center of one such social media scandal after uploading several incriminating photos to his personal Facebook page, reports the Daily Mail.
Arora’s photos, which appear to have been taken while the aircraft was safely on the ground, seem harmless enough. One picture shows Arora posing with other crew members on the flight deck, while another seems to show him giving passengers a tour of the flight deck with an elderly passenger seated in the captain’s seat. Arora’s Facebook page also features pictures of fellow Jet Airways pilots taking selfies and posing with celebrities.
The Daily Mail reports that while the photographs themselves don’t show any untoward behavior by crew members, they may be evidence that the pilots violated strict rules about who is allowed in the cockpit. There are also concerns that Arora’s photos revealed sensitive security details, as one image on Arora’s page showed official documents detailing an unspecified flight that was carrying a shipment of gold bars.
“In the pictures, crew members earning lakhs of rupees per month as salary are treating the plane like a local bus,” an unnamed Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) official told the Daily Mail. “They seem unaware that operating a flight is serious business as the lives of so many are in their hands.” According to the unnamed official, the DGCA may void Arora’s license if an investigation reveals a violation of security rules.
[Photo: Facebook via Daily Mail]
no safety issue here, but interesting to see that even pilots have low self esteem and that they need to use facebook to validate their existence
I agree with Harvyk; totally overblown; pilots must have incredible luck to be singled out like this among many other pilots, while they were on the ground.
Agreed. What's up with all the hoopla? Clearly they're on the ground, and just taking a picture...no big deal.
Given that one flight after the aircraft was safely at the gate and engines shut down, with the crew's permission I parked my (then) 2 year old daughter on the pilot's seat and she played the played with the control column and I took loads of pics and the captain was smiling away.... I think this is a non-issue.
What security concerns? On the ground, with the plane parked, past security (thus no prohibited objects), and they don't exactly look like they have grand plans for world domination (otherwise they would not be advertising the fact they where in a cockpit to the whole world). Also gold bars on an undisclosed flight, whoopty do, no doubt one of hundreds of valuable shipments which have been made on various airlines around the world that day. I asked a commercial pilot about this before posting, he pretty much laughed the story off as typical over zealousness. I still remember back before our current climate of fear (so prior to 2001), where going up to the flight deck mid flight was something they did as a way of keeping kids entertained. It was great to go up there and have a bit of a talk with the pilots, see what was going on, these days you so much as sneeze wrong on a plane and there will be an official ready to escort you off on landing. /Rant