rearview

From what I've heard diplomatic couriers often fly the same route week after week with regular deliveries.

limitless

My friend's Dad is a Federal Firearms Instructor and often carries his weapon on planes. His holster of choice is a specialized fanny pack, believe it or not. The pack has a rip cord that essentially makes it disassemble instantly, providing instant access to the weapon. I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of FAM use the same thing.

bkc6j

I had something very similar happen to me on a SFO-IAD flight a week ago. Aircraft was a 767 (domestic config) and I got a last minute upgrade to one of the bulkhead seats in the middle of domestic F.

Guy next to me has a pretty heavy looking computer bag size carry on (saw later that it did have a Macbook in it). Bins are filling up.. he is making no effort to put it above.. he gets told by a few FAs that he needs to put that up since he is in a bulkhead.. he stalls.. eventually no space above. I think he thought this meant he'd get to keep it. FAs still not (rightfully) willing to let it slide.

He stands up to go talk to an FA, I can't hear what he says, but the FA tells him he will have to ask the Captain. He goes to the cockpit, and apparently gets denied (obviously couldn't hear) because he comes back and reluctantly gives his bag to an FA who puts in it one of the closets up front and promises to bring it back as soon as we take off.

That went without a hitch and they gave him the bag back as soon as they possibly could.. like as soon as the FAs got up. Same procedure on landing.

During the flight he had his FAM expense report spreadsheet open on his big ... Macbook screen.. it was pretty hard not to notice.

I was pretty sure that was what it was even before seeing the expense report, but I was more surprised that they don't think ahead and seat them in a non-bulkhead row.

dcsnowwake

there effective for dealing with drunks, lol

evanderm

Didn't consider that. DC keeps sounding more and more plausible.

rin1018

Dc does sound plausible, but why wouldn't they have just stored the bag in the F closet initially?

An if he's a frequent traveler, why did he attempt to store his bag under his seat (where it clearly wouldn't fit and is difficult to do anyway bc of the bar under the seat, not to mention that that space is for the pax behind him)?

evanderm

I can only imagine that his policy would dictate that as long as the doors are open the bag must be within reach / sight. Still seems strange though. There is a US DC somewhere on this forum who might be able to shed some light on practices.

also in regards to the space under his own seat: I've had FA's advise passengers in the bulkhead to put their smaller items such as purses and laptops there sharing the space with the person behind them. Personally I wouldn't put a laptop there though.

rin1018

He intially tried to put his rollerboard under there. After the FA finally took the rollerboard, he then tried to put his laptop bag under there. The FA had to instruct him to put in under the divider/bulkhead (the divider wall doesn't go all the way to the floor on the A319s).

Foxhat

DC's are almost always going to be in 1st. They are normally the last person on the plane and the first one off. The baggage compartments must be closed and sealed before they board and can't be open unless they are present. I've seen one sit in a FA's jump seat to make sure they got off first.

So my guess is no DC.

jspector106

If you fly as much or as long as we have, we have also seen it all. This really seems like one of those weird occurrences that just happens from time to time. If it were you or I, we'd get yelled at, but this guy gets off easy for some reason.

That's my take.

bniu

from my experience, anyone legally allowed to carry firearms on a plane would just enter through the exit corridor that passengers go through to leave the airport. They just flash show their badge and ID and that's it. Doesn't make sense for them to go through any security if they're allowed to carry firearms on planes.

goalie

It's a bit more than just "flashing the badge" but yup, it's "in thru the exit" (and you don't even have to look hard to them )

LessO2

Untrue. UA941 Chicago-Denver, A320, within the past few weeks had four FAMs on the flight, two in first, two in the back.

All in aisle seats.

exerda

Straying a little toward TS&S land, but back in December when UA319 went MX and the 1K desk put me on the next IAD-LAD flight, I made a mad dash to the gate to make that other flight. As I ran up to the podium, the GAs were talking about the FAMs on that particular flight, as part of their closing-the-flight paperwork, I guess (one was double-checking which seat they'd given IIRC).

As if they FAMs didn't already stand out... here we had GAs saying which seat one of them had taken.

DinoFlyer

I agree. If it was me, they would have yelled at me and cold shouldered me the rest of the flight.