tanglin

It's not as if there's a half dozen terrorists waiting on every flight for a chance that the cockpit door might malfunction!

CPMaverick

Exactly.. I don't see why they would ever divert for this problem. I can see why it would prevent taking off and need to be fixed on the ground, but if it happens in the air, just be careful (as they were) and get to your destination.

WidgetHead

My family and I flew on a Delta MD-88 from JFK-ATL in October 1999, about two years before 9/11. We had a really long taxi out to the runway as there was a lot of fog that day, and I distinctly remember that the pilots/FA's left the flight deck door open during the entire taxi. They closed the door upon making the announcement for the FA's to be seated for takeoff. It was especially cool watching the conga line of departures at JFK in front of us through the cockpit window!

So yes, in some cases, the door was left open, but only during taxi out.

rylan

Yeah I remember being on some flights pre 9/11 where the door was left open at various points during the flight. Closed for takeoff, but at cruise when one of the pilots got a coffee or something from an FA, it was left open for a while.

GUWonder

Yes. What else can be expected when paranoia about terrorists or nuts (if different) is as extensive as it is in the US? It's the same kind of paranoia that has FAs blocking forward lav access even to forward-cabin pre-school children who need assistance from an adult in the bathroom.

At least the cockpit crew didn't divert the plane to some unscheduled airport instead. I wonder if that would be DHS/TSA's suggestion for such events, if asked what to do.

Crossin Jordan

95% of my flying career is post 9/11, but as a kettle flying in the 90s I don't remember a time when the flight deck door was not left open at times during flight.

To the OP, you said 2 FA's remained at the door until landing. Did they stay on guard with the door barricaded until you were at the gate or did some bit of normalcy return?

Dovster

The odds of a terrorist being aboard any one particular flight are remote. The odds against a terrorist being on a flight which has a broken cockpit door are infinitesimal.

I don't believe the pax had the slightest thing to worry about.

Pharaoh

Unless ........ one of those terrorists used to work at Boeing and was on the final assembly line the day that aircraft rolled through. When others went for the morning coffee break he grabbed a stainless steel inverse portal shackle (miniature, of course) from his bag, where he had been secreting it for months awaiting just such an opportunity, set the counter to 27,340 door cycles, installed the device through the latch inspection hatch (first removing the identical but NOT inverse version device from said latch hatch), and quickly covered his tracks. The removed device was placed in plain view in the galley #1 convention oven where a supervisor later noticed it, beneath his breath cursed the worker who had left the remains of a Tully's bagel, and discarded it. All that remained to do was to track the aircraft for 17 years ... and pounce!

HDQDD

I'm surprised they didn't just have one of the F/A's ride in the cockpit jumpseat.

As others have said, it wouldn't be a reason to divert.

BobH

I doubt they 'floored' it. Delta pads its schedules these days because no one complains when a plane is early. As pointed out, they may have been given some preference in landing though.

Did anything about the approach seem unusual, or did you go "straight in"?

Bob H

davetravels

Ya missed April Fool's day by a day!

xolinlevh

The two FAs who remained didn't stand "on alert". From my seat I could only see one of them fully and she remained standing to the left of the flight deck door until we started to land and she took the jump seat. The second one was off to the right of her though I could not see his movements, he was in the galley area.

xolinlevh

Didn't seem out of the ordinary to me. I just assumed they rushed things given at JFK the inbound plane was late arriving so combine a late departure and a early arrival....seemed to me that to make up that much time there must have been some extra speed in there

baccarat0809

Living in BUF in the '90s, girlfriend and I were returning back from a long weekend jaunt to the boardwalk and Taj Mahal. Flights were on US Scare and from BUF-PHL-ACY were all jets and nothing special happened, but on the return segment from ACY to PHL we were on a very, very small aircraft - there were maybe 5 or 6 rows and it was a prop job. I can't remember if it was 1 or 2 engines, but it was so small EVERY seat was an aisle and window as each row had 1 seat each side.

Anyway, there was no cockpit door - there was only a curtain. During take-off and landing the curtain was pulled back so we could watch out the front window. At first I thought it was a wonderful, amazing experience. That is until we got into some clouds and absolutely had our asses handed to us with turbulence. At one point we hit an air-pocket and dropped what felt like 1000+ ft in a matter of seconds - almost like a free-fall - scared the bejesus out of me and the girlfriend. One of three (3) times that I have had to grab the air-sickness bag. Fortunately, I didn't have to use it, but man, that flight was crazy cool and crazy frightening.

IIRC there was no Flight Attendant on the flight either (or if there was I don't remember that person getting up doing any service), only the pilot and co-pilot. Pilot looked like a Ken doll - maybe 21 years old, if that ~ and if they were casting for a Barbie movie this guy would have bagged the part, no questions asked.

Funny what you remember ...

brocklee9000

I remember curtains, as recently as 2004. I was coming home, connecting on a Mesa Airways Beechcraft 1900D, PHX-IGM. There was a scheduled stop at PRC, the pilots helped the passenger getting off at Prescott to get luggage out of the back (no FAs or ground crew), and then we took off for the 15 minute flight to IGM. The pilots didn't draw the curtains, so I had the coolest view that night. Really stormy October weather in AZ, a little plane buffeting around, climbing over the mountain ridges, and descending into IGM was probably the best part. Uncontrolled airport, no ILS, so approach vectors you in and you have to make a visual approach the rest of the way. One thing you learn in ground school is the appropriate shape of runway lights at night, and how to judge your decent rate. Those lights were all over the place, as winds and gusts literally blew us around like a little boat in a big ocean. The landing was perfect. Those guys definitely don't get paid enough. Sigh...