allga

As the father of an airline captain--who obviously put in his time as a FO--it always amazes me how many people think the FO's job is to get coffee for the captain. I can't tell you how many times friends and acquaintances would go slack-jawed when I told them that--as FO--he would routinely fly every other leg. "He actually flies the plane?" they would say.

In answer I would ask them how they would like to be aboard his first flight after he was promoted to captain if he hadn't been flying the freakin' thing for all those years. "Oh, yeah. . ." they would say as the obvious point began to sink in.

Anyway, the CO situation was obviously a tragedy, but nothing close to an actual emergency, no matter what cable news said. Had there been no relief pilot, the FO would have landed it himself without incident.

The irony going around the industry today goes something like this. . .

"Let's see, regional pilots are too young and inexperienced, older pilots are prone to die in the saddle. So the only pilots you should fly with are the ones between 37 and 46."

The media's misinformation and naivete about the airline industry is the stuff of legend, and when it's not scary it's truly laughable.

featheroleather

The "thorough,rigourous"annual medical pilots get is a joke too.

bocastephen

The scary part is the Ma and Pa Kettles who don't know any better sit in front of CNN and lap up this spewed and contrived sensationalist drivel. Thankfully I didn't suffer a blood pressure increase by watching any of it, but I wonder how often the news programs labeled this tragic loss as a 'an almost mid-air disaster' or brought on talking heads to discuss how this could have been a terrorist incident.

GreatChecko

Captain's are required to go through a FAA medical exam every 6 months. At 35 it requires an EKG and for those above 40, it requires an annual EKG.

Beyond adding a blood test, I can't think anything else that could be put into it. They check vital signs, do a physical exam, as you various questions, check for diabetes, and for our older colleagues, an EKG. Especially for situations like this, I can't imagine anything more that could be done.

Furthermore, as a professional, we know that our health is very important and we are required by law to remove ourselves from flying anytime we feel we have a condition that would prevent us from passing a medical that day. Furthermore, most pilots I know have two physicians, one for the FAA medical and one for their yearly exam, to ensure nothing goes unnoticed.

For those of you curious, this is what that exam entails: 14 CFR Part 67, Subpart B

Checko

N965VJ

Has Mary Schiavo chimed in yet? The only thing she should be allowed to say into a microphone is “Thank you that will be $5.75. Please pull around the first window.”

EsquireFlyer

I think that's correct. For safety reasons.

I don't think that's the reason. It's not like the FA could land the plane if the one pilot in there died or passed out. She might be able to administer CPR but...really you'd need a second pilot to land the plane.

Bonehead

It's so someone could unlock the door.

N965VJ

WRT the procedure of having a FA in the cockpit, on some aircraft the door cannot be unlocked without one of the pilots physically getting out of their seat. If one pilot left the cockpit to go to the lav, the remaining pilot would have to be away from the flight controls briefly to let him back in.

GreatChecko

Yep.

In most cockpits, there is no way to open the door without getting out of your seat.

I would hope the issues with that are obvious.

tjisnumbaone

I was also surprised to hear this story.

Interesting how the FA's didn't say anything to the PAX. I guess the doctors that were on board that went up knew about it. If the PAX were really wondering what was going on, they could've asked.

On fox news last night in the BOS area, they showed a video of the FA's smoking because they "needed a smoke after that heart wrenching flight." I personally think this is obnoxious, I hate FA's that smoke. I once was coming off ZRH-BOS on LX and saw a FA from the flight smoking, just another way of saying "Yeah, I'm off work, I wanna smoke." If I was the CEO of an airline, or pretty much any company that uses uniforms, I'd put in a policy where employees can't smoke when they are in uniform.

Funny, the news says that the pilot was EWR based but a TV station in IAH interviewed his wife. I believe he is IAH based, maybe flying a EWR-IAH segment later?

Sad story. RIP.

jpsboo

He was EWR based. He lived in IAH.

cova

The FA is in the cockpit - so should the remaining flight officer have a problem - the FA would be able to open the cockpit door and let the flight officer who is using the restroom back in the cockpit.

cova

I thought CNN did go overboard. They had the sobbing wife on the telephone over world wide TV. They also showed picture of their house - plus a sign on the front door for the media to respect the wishes to be left alone.

N965VJ

Linkage

Evan!

A friend of mine who is a flight attendant for UA can not smoke in uniform. Okay, at one time, couldn't smoke in uniform. This policy was put into place several years ago at UA. The policy might have changed since then because he no longer smokes so the subject hasn't come up recently.