Obie - this thread is about
other airline's procedures. (you idiot)
I suspect that a lot of the (pilot) objection simply comes from guys who have only flown for one carrier, only seen one way to skin a cat, and assume that is the
only way.
I have seen:
1- Aircraft placed on gate by engineers, with daily inspection complete.
- Crew get to crew room and log on.
- FO proceeds directly to the aircraft, checks the Tech Log, does the walk around, puts on the coffee, calls the engineers back (if needed) and begins to program the FMC etc.
- Cabin crew gather and brief the day, proceed to the aircraft, check the cabin.
- Captain checks wx and NOTAMs, decides the fuel, completes the plan. Last to arrive at aircraft, briefs the Senior and FO, accepts the FO's brief on the aircraft state.
- Show gets on the road.
2- Aircraft placed on gate by engineers, with daily inspection complete.
- Crew get to crew room and log on.
- Cabin crew proceed to aircraft, inspect the cabin, and if necessary board pax.
- Captain and FO check wx, NOTAMs, jointly agree the fuel, proceed to aircraft together, brief the Purser.
- Pilot not flying completes the walkaround, calls the engineers back (if needed)
- Show gets on the road.
3- Aircraft placed on gate by engineers, with daily inspection complete.
- Crew get to crew room and log on.
- Captain and FO find agreement on the fuel, log the plan.
- All of the crew gather and brief.
- All of the crew proceed to the aircraft together.
- Captain required to complete the first walkaround of the day, calls the engineers back (if needed)
- Show gets on the road.
and other minor variations on the theme.
In terms of boarding the passengers before the crew arrive, the cabin crew look after the passenger safety (as always) and are competent to evacuate. The engineers have already performed the daily inspection, so the only added risk is that you lose the liaison between ATC/Emergency Services/Company and the crew on the aircraft.
(For those that don't know, pilots are not generally licensed or considered competent to perform the daily inspection on a Category A aircraft. Category A aircraft are your general jet passenger carriers and similar. Pilot's require specific authorisation (after training) to sign the daily inspection on these, although they can, and do, complete the daily inspection on small training types. The "walkaround" is simply a general look for damage that may have occurred since the last inspection.)
In aviation we work on probability, and off the top of my head, I can only remember two incidents involving aircraft on the ramp. One was the Thai 737 where the centre tank fuel pumps were left running, and the centre tank exploded. The other was a refuelling incident in New Zealand, where a vehicle ran into the ground fuel connection, causing a high pressure geyser of fuel to erupt from the ground point and engulf the right wing, which subsequently ignited. I imagine there must be a couple of others - aircraft dropping on their tail, or bridge problems etc.
All in all, an acceptable risk level, I would think, given all of these events would occur anyway - we are just talking about the added risk of not having a flight crew. A competent management would undertake a risk assessment for any new procedure.
Absent pilots - two fewer lives for the cabin crew to worry about?
