Originally Posted by
BE-58
I agree. Having an extra set of hands/eyes/ears would be invaluable if you were diverting to an unfamiliar airport at night. This is above and beyond the personal stress that she must have been dealing with watching her colleague have a heart attack in the seat next to her.
This pilot did the right thing for every soul on board that aircraft. ^
I would certainly hope a volunteer is not being called to help fly a plane I am in. Aside from the question of security, having an unvetted volunteer in the cock-pit, who is to know the competence of this rookie captain and whether he can harm, rather than enhance, the ability of the copilot to land the plane safely. I think if you had a known active but off-duty commercial pilot (preferably with same airline) on board then fine but otherwise I would want to take my chance with the copilot landing solo, as he or she is trained to do.