What would you do?
Hi all,
I’m just a lowly PPL with 100 hours. I recently had an interview for a sponsorship scheme where I was asked the following question by a retired Captain:
“Suppose, me (the Captain) and you (the FO) got on extremely well with one another, I liked you, you liked me, we’d flown together all day long without issues. On the last sector of the day I am proposing to do something which you do not approve of. What would you do?”
My first response was:
“Firstly I would carefully review the planned action and consider it in light of company SOPs, then aircraft operating limitations. In that case I would voice my concern regarding the planned course of action but would leave it up to you to decide.”
He then went on further….
“Suppose it was something that you considered totally jeopardised the safety of the aircraft, what would you do?”
I then said:
“If the a/c was about to crash, and the Captain was not responding in the correct way, I would see that as a threat to my life and would interfere by taking immediate action to avoid a crash.”
I wasn’t sure about this, I know it’s probably the wrong answer but gave it anyway. He then pressed on further and asked:
“Suppose it wasn’t quite so severe, for example we were on an NDB approach where the minimums were 600ft, and the cloud base was at 400ft, and I said to you this is our home base, there’s no high terrain and I’m going to do it anyway. What would you do then?”
I replied:
“I would voice my concern highlighting that this is plainly illegal, we are bending the rules and will be caught.”
He then added…
“What if I listened to your concerns but said I was going to bend the rules anyway. Then what would you do?”
My reply:
“I don’t know at this stage, I hope to learn this when it comes to my MCC training.”
Did I do OK for someone of my experience? What would've been a better answer?
Thanks