Some of my relatives just got home from a vacation. They were in first class, and they were very concerned over the cockpit access. Basically, when the pilot opens the door, a flight attendant stands in front to 'block' access. Obviously, this wouldn't work very well if someone wanted to get into the cockpit.

Now, I'm all for reasonable security measures as much as the next person is. But this seems like it might be a plausible (if unlikely) threat.

Thoughts?

It is a very real weakness if there was a plausible threat. As you acknowledge, it's unlikely. Very unlikely.

Since September 11, 2001, exactly zero young male middle-eastern islamic militants have tried to gain access to the flight deck of a jetliner in the USA.

Some may try it again in the future, but the FAs and pilots are at least looking for and preparing against such an assault. And the pax are unlikely to allow hijackers to breach the flight deck door anyway. And the sky marshals (for those flights featuring them). And the armed pilots (if the flight features them). All in all, the various layers guarding the flight deck door seem pretty reasonable to me. You gotta get thru a drink cart, and FA or two, the other pax, the sky marshal and the potentially armed pilot still on the flight deck.

Their concern was that someone in the front row of F might be able to get up quickly. And they also said there was no drink cart, which sounded weird to me. Is that still policy?

And every time I've seen this happen, the pilot steps out, closes the cockpit door behind him immediately, then steps into the bathroom.

So, in addition to the cart, FA(s), pax and FAM's, any potential cockpit attack must also go through the pilot.

Very minor threat, IMO, but again, this is the age of death by chapstick so you never know!

That is odd. I fly AA and in the last five years, I've seen the drink cart used to block the door probably every time.

How do you and your relatives feel this would be better handled?

I think putting the drink cart in front would be fine, it seemed weird to me that it wasn't there.

Isn't that the old saying: "Putting the cart before the doors?"

The pilots should be locked in the flight deck.

I find that crews are getting lax about it. On today's DCA-DFW flight, the flight deck door was open for 90 seconds while the first officer and two flight attendants discussed something. None of them were looking at the passengers; two had their backs to us and the other was 3/4 turned away.

While I think the risk was negligible, this is clearly the kind of situation one would want to exploit.

What happens on a long flight when they have to use the bathroom?

Use a J-bottle, or redesign the aircraft so that the forward lav is inside the flight deck. 747-400s in most configurations already have this.

Is a J-bottle easily used by a female pilot? What if there is both a male and female pilot in an MD-88 cockpit which doesn't have room for a lav?

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8700/4.1.0 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/102)

1. Mrs. Bollar has used one in a Piper Cherokee, so I would say yes.
2. I don't care, but the airline could always schedule same sex crews.
3. I think the forward part of the starboard galley and the area behind the FO is large enough for a toilet.

I have to use it too.