Originally Posted by
PoppaJo
On another note, can I ask what is the American policy these days when it comes to one leaving for the loo etc?
To the best of my knowledge, the FAA never mandated or even recommended not leaving a single person alone on the flight deck when a pilot took a comfort break.
As others have mentioned, a truly suicidal pilot can crash a pilot if they are so determined regardless of how many people are on the flight deck - for example, going full nose down at 500ft. during takeoff or landing would leave no time for successful intervention. Mandating (at least) two people at all times was at best a 'feel good'
PR after Germanwings.
A while back I was in first class flying Alaska Airlines somewhere - mid flight the pilots took a comfort break - one at a time of course. What I found mildly amusing was that - when the flight deck door was open, the flight attendant - a young (20ish), very pretty, rather petit flight attendant stood in the aisle - doing her best to look intimidating - to block access to any bad actors who wanted to access to the flight deck while the door was open. Purely symbolic - since unless the young lady was secretly a black belt or similar - I'm sure she wouldn't have been able to provide more than token resistance to a determined bad actor...
BTW, I do agree that - while a brief chat with a FA while taking their comfort break is acceptable, 30 minutes would be excessive...