Originally Posted by Pharaoh

Several years ago I was flying with an FAA inspector and our wives, a leisure trip. There was no safety announcement before takeoff and glassware was not collected. There were extenuating circumstances but nonetheless, to make a long and pretty funny story shorter,] he invited me to stay behind him as we let all the other passengers deplane

When an FA came to us to get us moving he simply flashed his badge and requested the lead FA. When she came he had her, in turn, get the pilot. Then proceeded to, uh, discuss the infractions and asked the pilot if he knew the penalties involved. The pilot didn't so my friend quoted directly from the regulations that the pilot's license could be confiscated on the spot and fines assessed. I believe he said FA discipline would be up to the airline or it would be a fine, cannot remember exactly.
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At that point he picked up his FAA briefcase (always with him!). As we left he turned to the pilot and said basically, you're lucky I'm on vacation.

So it is a very serious offense and if an appropriate FAA inspector were to be on board, severe consequences.

Originally Posted by kwildnj

Yes, because you know proper FAA protocol for response to such a situation.


For all we know, the steps the inspector took was the proper protocol. Either way, good for him for taking the steps to ensure compliance, that same flight crew could be operating one, two, three more flights that day.