Originally Posted by
D-OCHO
For your info,
The Trainee as everybody calls him is a Fully Licensed and qualified Co-pilot who has passed all of his tests. The only thing he has not is Line flying experience. What he was doing on this flight and what hundreds of other pilots are doing every day is Line Training. Getting training/experience on the line under supervision of a Line Training Captain.
The other Co-pilot on the extra seat in the cockpit (Also called jumpseat) is there for safety reasons. He is the so called Safety Pilot. If the Captain would be unable to perform his duty's he should be able to safely land the aircraft.
Why this safety pilot has not intervened I do not know. This might/could be a Cultural problem though.
My understanding is that all three pilots were ex-military. The Captain had about 15,000 hours and the two F/O's had about 3,000 and 2,000 hours.
I don't think it has been established which F/O was in the right seat doing Line Indoctrination training.
Was the jumpseat F/O an experienced "Safety Pilot" or an untrained observer on a familiarization flight?