Last Minute Relief Crew

[Maddie]

Today the last person to join our flight was the First Officer. I have seen this happen at least once before.

Immediately after he joined, the cabin doors were closed and the plane taxied to the runway. We were airborne I would say within 7 minutes.

I was just wondering, in situations such as this, who will have completed the external visual checks? Could they have been completed by the Captain after everybody disembarked the incoming flight and before embarkation started for the outgoing one?

What simultaneous cross-checking (between the Captain and First Officer) needs to be done before take-off and would there normally be enough time to do this in these circumstances.

I am a very nervous flyer and because it was windy today I chose to sit right at the front, which is why I noticed what was happening. Normally, I prefer to sit right at the back of the aircraft.

The seat belt sign came on/off intermittently during the flight, in recognition of the inclement weather.

The airline I flew with today, has, certainly, in my humble opinion the most caring and re-assuring and sympathetic flight attendants in the aviation world, its safety record is almost flawless and I feel as safe as I can be (given my phobia) flying with them, so please don't take this as a criticism of procedures, I am just trying to improve my understanding of such situations, so that I can fly happier, next time it happens.

Thank you.

[piton]

Maddie,

Either pilot or otherwise a ground engineer can do the external check (walk-around) in fact it usually does occur before boarding passengers. The F.O. was probably called out from standby to replace a sick colleague - in that case the other pilot would have done both pilot's preflight duties while waiting. Then when the F O turned up they could quickly verify the things that do need crosschecking - literally in a minute or two - even during taxi - especially if it was an airport they were both familiar with.

The instrument check takes seconds and they would also need to verify some performance figures - weights and corresponding speeds and run through the takeoff procedure applicable for that airport.

If we are missing a crew member we do try and get as much as possible done in order to limit delay.