I think I'm right in believing that the Captain is ultimately responsible for the safety of everyone on board his aircraft and therefore I wonder why it is not part of the FRC's?
- you are correct ('Ops Manual' in civvy street), BUT airline policy is what guides the 'Captain', leaving an interesting dichotomy between being (ANO) RESPONSIBLE for safety etc, but being REQUIRED to operate IAW company policy.
We ex DanAirs hit this in BA, where cabin crew were NOT required to check the supply of lifejackets per seat for each sector (as with DanAir - they got 'borrowed' by amateur sailoring pax- ljs, not c/c....
) but it was moved to a cyclical engineering 'function' (I think every 3 months) which, due to a computer up-cock in engineering resulted in the early 2000's in an LHR Airbus flying for several weeks with two rows of seats - 12 pax - with NO lj's, since new seats had been fitted but no ljs provisioned - and, of course, no-one checked. I got into 'difficulties' with BA management over this and the Captain's responsibility and in a written reply, the
department of rubber teeth told me to follow company procedures. So, 'responsible'?? 'I voss only following orders'
You'll love it out there...........