Flight deck visits allowed?
 

My earlier post in the AF forum was going nowhere quickly so I thought to give this a try here.

Since 9/11 I have never seen flight deck visits made in-flight on any route operated by a major carrier. Two weeks ago I was on an Air France flight from North America to CDG, seated on the upper deck of a 744 and after the dinner service, small groups began visiting the flight deck over a period of roughly 2 hours. Now I fly AF quite frequently and I have never seen this happen over the past 7 years.

Considering we departed NA, flying to the EU, and were somewhere over the North Atlantic, what are the laws/regulations governing in-flight cockpit visits and are they actually still allowed?

Thanks in advance!

You are joking aren't you.

Just in case the answer is NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO

Letting anyone unauthorised onto the flightdeck is a very good way for a pilot to get sacked - and probably blackballed so that only Ryanair would hire him

Sad but true. The days of visiting the flight deck seem over. Concorde used to have a special :jump seat" in the cabin just for guests, which the Queen used to like to take advantage of apparently.

That said, I guess the Queen is one of the few people who might still make it on the flight deck for a visit. Tricky for BA cabin staff to say "no" to her :)

As recently as 2006 I was allowed into the flight deck on board an OS flight from VIE to YUL, and this over Canada (from about Tadoussac to Quebec City). The captain said it was entirely at his discretion. No paranoid rules to follow for non-North American carriers.

OS seems to be one of the better ones for that. I've also seen it done on OS flights, including ones from the US.

I've had no problems making a couple flight deck visits post 9/11 on routes that don't involve the US or US carriers.

Been on flights were having the cockpit door closed and locked wasn't a big concern including some intra-European flights where the cockpit door was left open for a good portion of the flight.

Other parts of the world operate with more common sense.

Whether flight deck visits are allowed or not would be up to the airline you're flying on.

I've never been in the FD on a US carrier since an Eastern L1011, back in the late 80s. I've been in a Ward Air A310 and Air Canada 767 FD around the same time period, and spent an entire flight riding the jumpseat on a Canadian Airlines Int'l/CP Air B737-200 (definitely my coolest and least comfortable flight experience) before they were taken over by AC.

Obviously, visits on any North American carrier are probably not going to happen - but as mentioned up thread, there are still some international airlines which might entertain visits from some customers, or children while in flight.

Is it a good idea? Probably not - and I'm saying this as someone who would like to ride up front. If you really want to see how an airplane flies, try a $75 discovery flight at a Cessna Pilot Center - the experience will be even cooler, as you're the one who gets to fly the plane.

Not quite the same as sitting in a jump seat for approach and landing... (or an entire flight which I've done a few times on "heavy" cargo aircraft).

As a "not current" pilot ... the above isn't a bad idea. The Cessna 152 or 172 is simple to operate and it's a lot of fun.

I only hope Osama doesn't read FT

I spent a whole flight in the cockpit during a trip between two european countries as late as 2006. No hijacking happened during that flight.

Well, if *I* noticed it, then so did the 200-some other people on the Airbus did, too.....