jetshagged123

Currently in Qantas at the moment we are prevented from having our family/nominated travel beneficieries on the flight deck.

It is Qantas' interpretation of DOTARS rule which Virgin Blue choose to implement differently. ie, family can travel on flight deck, in fact I think anyone that the captain approves of can come to flight deck.

Consequently it is making taking family on trips almost impossible with the high load factors these days, and making a lot of crew very unhappy.

I am interested to hear from other airlines around the world and what is your current situation?

Cheers ,
JS

Southernboy

I understand that some airlines do allow this. I'm now retired & so out of touch but I'm sure a more current pilot will help you with their company policy. My guess is that there are many variations. My last employer certainly changed the rules twice.

HotDog

CX allows release of jumpseat to families, current employees and retired tech crew at Capt's discretion.

Homer_J

I was off to paris last week with my airline on standby tickets. The flight was going via another airport, where I got off loaded, as all the seats were full.

The jumpseat was free, but I'm not allowed on it under any circumstance. Despite the fact I'm a captain.

The whole thing ruined my night away with my girlfriend.

If i'm flying its of, but if I'm a passanger i'm a security risk?
And also, if both pilots die enroute, am I then allowed on the flightdeck?

The whole thing is an outdated reaction to 9/11.

Avitor

My firend Catherine says....ordinary people should not go in a cockpit, the flight crew surely have enough to do in looking where they are going.

Old Fella

Avitor, does your friend Catherine think all flight deck crew have two heads? You should tell her that they too are just ordinary people doing a job, mostly monitoring that the aeroplane is going where they expect it to. .

Avitor

Old Fella.

My friend Catherine is a bit of a flirt, she thinks all flight crew are gorgeous. It's jealousy you see! She always asks if they know the way to where we are going, I tell her, mostly.
"Ordinary"? I would challenge that! 'Special' might be my description.

sml

If both pilots die enroute, then you might be allowed to enter the flightdeck.
But is it possible to open the door to the flightdeck from the cabin side then?


sml

blow.n.gasket

Yes, if you know the secret.



Spend $100,000 at the flying school of your choice.
Study hard, do well , and apply to an airline.
If you are good enough you will be accepted,
Then you too will know the secret!

Ron & Edna Johns

LLuke

Also not sure the OP belongs on a public board. Just my 2¢.

Pinkman

....that airlines permit family on the flightdeck. Putting aside the Aeroflot airbus case as a stupid outlier, and recognising that even in some fairly spectacular incidents (such as VH-OJH Bangkok) the incident reports have almost always denied a causal link between family on the flight deck and the incident (eg VJ-OJH "there was no evidence to indicate that the presence of the second officer’s wife on the flight deck adversely influenced any aspect of the flight") I still find it hard to believe that its not a distraction. Bad enough having the wife in the car.....

Pinkman

luvly jubbly

Makes no difference to security, as it takes 30 secs for the door to open anyway. Most company SOPs are to deny access then check who is trying to get in.

Real stupidity would be to have a door that can't be opened from the cabin!

blimey

Pinkman

It's not. A distraction is being totally p**sed off at not being able to get your wife/son/daughter back with you.

Scotteo

It is of my oppinion that a fully competant pilot will rise above any distraction and keep his main goal (flying the plane) at hand. Therefore any distraction will (hopefully) be purely based on a disturbance to the flight deck which the pilot can react to and correct, be it a slight bump of turbulence or a big bright noisey alarm!

So long as your family is briefed on the dangers of human factors, I see no problem with catering them around.

Taildragger67

Slight thread drift going on here, but...

Any rellie (or anyone else) causing a distraction would most likely only ever do it once, as that's all the opportunities they'd get.

I don't think most pilots have a death-wish which would allow them to risk putting their own life at risk by having a distracting family member in the office; reasonable CRM would also dictate that if the other crew member(s) were being distracted by another crew member's family, they would also pipe up. I suspect that these days, no matter what your rank, you'd need to be pretty sure of yourself if you decided to tell your crew-mate off and risk it getting up the line.