Originally Posted by
fairviewroad
Well, the person was clearly not a flight attendant. So, who else would be in the cockpit? I mean, yes there's a difference between a captain and a first officer, but I think it's fair to call them both "pilots", especially in the lower case sense of the word.
I think we are arguing semantics here. My point was that a news reporter hearing the story possibly second-hand won't distinguish or care whether it was the actual PIC or one of the other flight deck crew. They see the person coming out with bars on their shoulder as 'the pilot'.