Originally Posted by
anxiao
Airlines have opposed pilot's unions on this, and won for purely financial reasons. Until the next incapacitation/murder-suicide, when they will have to do a couple of years penance in safety mode and bring the CC back.
Have they? In Europe? Back when the strong suggestion from EASA came (it was never a rule, i believe BA never introduced it) i was a union rep. Not only me, but the whole union was very much against the untrained, not properly security checked, after a 3 week course fully „qualified“ observer on the flightdeck rule. We had safety cases around that issue for years and they all came straight out against it. Yes, in my outfit we introduced it as well, the safety management was very clear: their safety case was against it, the rule was brought in as pure publicity stunt and quietly dropped a year later. There are airlines that still use it, mainly because they have not installed cameras and therefore need someone out of the seat to identify the person that wants to get in. They have no choice, without the camera system it is a clear requirement.