Originally Posted by
sbm12
Thanks, as always, for the info.
To the bit that you noted above, are you saying that at other airlines a pilot might be rated only as a FO and not able to be in command and that CO is different in this regard? Or something else?
CO is no different than any other carrier. Captains and F/Os take turns flying and the checklists refer to the PF (pilot flying) and PNF (pilot not flying). Whether it's a Captain or F/O, they're fully trained and capable of flying the aircraft. The sole difference is that the Captain has final authority over all aspects of the flight and has command authoriy over the other crew members.
While this is a sad situation, I can think of any number of things that could happen over the Atlantic in a twin engine aircraft that would disturb me more than this. Many of these are things that one would never know about unless you were specifically told.