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Mother and Daughter Team Co-Pilot DL Flight Together

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Old Mar 23, 2019, 10:49 am
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Mother and Daughter Team Co-Pilot DL Flight Together

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Old Mar 23, 2019, 10:59 am
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It's cool, but I'm a bit surprised that family members are permitted to be in the cockpit together for a flight. I'm thinking that crew resource management could conflict with family dynamics in an emergency no matter how professional the people are.

OTOH, I've had a husband and wife team as business class FA and purser on a flight. IIRC it was PMNW WBC and they were based at DTW but lived at MSP. I believe they both still work for DL although they might be MSP based by now as they would have enough seniority to get the international routes they liked.
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Old Mar 23, 2019, 12:32 pm
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Great story. Wonder if either or both are Embry-Riddle alumna?

Even an all-female flight deck is pretty rare. According to this Forbes article from last year https://www.forbes.com/sites/niallmc.../#538db76150bc, Delta was running around 4.5% female pilots. So the chances of an all-female flight deck is 0.2% or 2 of 1,000 Delta flights.
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Old Mar 23, 2019, 12:32 pm
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I think this is just amazing! What an amazing parental role model and what an amazing child to follow in the footsteps of her trailblazing mother.
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Old Mar 23, 2019, 6:47 pm
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I saw them last Saturday morning at the gate while deplaning the inbound flight at terminal 3. There were TV cameras and I figured it was probably two female pilots were working the return flight. Never thought mother/daughter. Pretty cool!

BTW, it was a 757-300 so more like 230 passengers.

Last edited by boeingATL; Mar 23, 2019 at 6:52 pm
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Old Mar 23, 2019, 9:44 pm
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Originally Posted by MSPeconomist
It's cool, but I'm a bit surprised that family members are permitted to be in the cockpit together for a flight. I'm thinking that crew resource management could conflict with family dynamics in an emergency no matter how professional the people are.

OTOH, I've had a husband and wife team as business class FA and purser on a flight. IIRC it was PMNW WBC and they were based at DTW but lived at MSP. I believe they both still work for DL although they might be MSP based by now as they would have enough seniority to get the international routes they liked.
I agree. Same family are normally barred from being in any type of authority role over another family member.
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Old Mar 23, 2019, 10:11 pm
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Very cool story. Not surprised that some at FT have found something to fault with it.

I trust these pilots to act according to their training and be professional.
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Old Mar 24, 2019, 4:29 am
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Originally Posted by CPMaverick
Very cool story. Not surprised that some at FT have found something to fault with it.

I trust these pilots to act according to their training and be professional.
Has nothing to do with it being cool. While it is cool here and everything went fine, there's a reason for nepotism policies. Family dynamic changes things regardless of how hard a person tries to not allow it. Your local gas station isn't going to put a family member of a supervisor on the same shift together. In case of pilots the reason holds even truer.

Very feel good story yes. However as anyone with any experience in CRM will tell you, it was an accident waiting to happen.
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Old Mar 24, 2019, 4:36 am
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Originally Posted by flyerCO
Your local gas station isn't going to put a family member of a supervisor on the same shift together.
You are massively exaggerating company policies regarding family. Lots of companies have family at many levels. I've worked for family before. Have you really never heard of a 'family business'??

Sure, some companies may have polices, particularly large ones, but pretending these policies are widespread is simply wrong. This is a perfect case, obviously even Delta doesn't have a policy like this yet you think local gas stations do... Ok sure... nice story but just wrong.
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Old Mar 24, 2019, 7:03 am
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Originally Posted by flyerCO
Has nothing to do with it being cool. While it is cool here and everything went fine, there's a reason for nepotism policies. Family dynamic changes things regardless of how hard a person tries to not allow it. Your local gas station isn't going to put a family member of a supervisor on the same shift together. In case of pilots the reason holds even truer.

Very feel good story yes. However as anyone with any experience in CRM will tell you, it was an accident waiting to happen.

the Air Force used to prohibit husband/wife from flying together as aircrew. It had nothing to do with CRM. It was all about minimizing loss to a family in the event of an accident.
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Old Mar 24, 2019, 7:14 am
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Originally Posted by flyerCO
Has nothing to do with it being cool. While it is cool here and everything went fine, there's a reason for nepotism policies. Family dynamic changes things regardless of how hard a person tries to not allow it. Your local gas station isn't going to put a family member of a supervisor on the same shift together. In case of pilots the reason holds even truer.

Very feel good story yes. However as anyone with any experience in CRM will tell you, it was an accident waiting to happen.
You can Google “Father son airline pilots” and see plenty of similar stories. I’m sure there are plenty of other duo types out there. A family friend of ours is a Captain at a US airline and his daughter is an FA with the same airline, and they’ve worked a flight or two together (I’ve seen their pictures shared on FB).

There are plenty of familt run businesses where the owner is related to other workers. So you’re either over-exaggerating or unaware of what the policies regarding nepotism actually are.
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Old Mar 24, 2019, 7:19 am
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I know a family of 5 who split up on flights to and from vacations never taking the same flight all together.
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Old Mar 24, 2019, 8:19 am
  #13  
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Originally Posted by ATOBTTR

You can Google “Father son airline pilots” and see plenty of similar stories. I’m sure there are plenty of other duo types out there. A family friend of ours is a Captain at a US airline and his daughter is an FA with the same airline, and they’ve worked a flight or two together (I’ve seen their pictures shared on FB).

There are plenty of familt run businesses where the owner is related to other workers. So you’re either over-exaggerating or unaware of what the policies regarding nepotism actually are.
Obvipus it has happebed. However I'm betting as infrequently that it has happened that a policy got over looked in pursuit of PR. Again I go back to my CRM class and this shouldn't happen. I'm betting it's more along the lines of system schedules the two together and no one bothers to care or thinks about if this is ok. First time there's an incident of any type on one of these crewed flights and there'll be a huge payout.
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Old Mar 24, 2019, 8:52 am
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Originally Posted by flyerCO
Obvipus it has happebed. However I'm betting as infrequently that it has happened that a policy got over looked in pursuit of PR. Again I go back to my CRM class and this shouldn't happen. I'm betting it's more along the lines of system schedules the two together and no one bothers to care or thinks about if this is ok. First time there's an incident of any type on one of these crewed flights and there'll be a huge payout.
System schedules it and no one bothers to care? If there was a policy to enforce, you would think the system would take that into consideration. If this was a policy as you suggest, and overlooking it could result in a huge liability "payout" you had best believe (hope even) there is more than just relying on someone caring to prevent it.

I am no expert in CRM but I can't believe this is an issue. Please explain in the context of commercial airline pilots how this situation would cause an issue. I am honesty curious.

I also don't see how nepotism has anything to do with this.

On a less serious note, I am sure most mothers and daughters have no issue challenging each other, so I doubt that could be a concern.

Edit to add: I think it is a great story, thanks to the OP for sharing. I was honored to work with my father when I had the chance, and it is neat to see others enjoying the same experience. And these ladies being airline pilots makes it even more unique.
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Old Mar 24, 2019, 9:30 am
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Originally Posted by flyerCO
Obvipus it has happebed. However I'm betting as infrequently that it has happened that a policy got over looked in pursuit of PR. Again I go back to my CRM class and this shouldn't happen. I'm betting it's more along the lines of system schedules the two together and no one bothers to care or thinks about if this is ok. First time there's an incident of any type on one of these crewed flights and there'll be a huge payout.
Are you suggesting that if there was a crash for any other reason there wouldn’t be huge payouts otherwise?

And don’t you think that if this was a policy violation the FAA/DOT would be all over it? But it obviously keeps happening on occasion and the FAA hasn’t been fining airlines for violating either the airline’s own policies (which have to be approved by the FAA) or the FAA’s policies.
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