Originally Posted by
victor tango
All these views on cabin crew attending the flight deck for the purposes posted seem to me to miss the point..[snip]
Now, to expect them to monitor pilots whilst one goes out of the cockpit, seems to me quite ridiculous, due to the fact that (no reflection on them) they haven't been trained so to do.
Even if they got the necessary training, what have we ended up with, a CC member who is trying to do a fairly stressful job, to then change hats and become a person on the same professional standard as pilots and start supervising them !
A number of posters do seem to be making (unwarranted IMHO) assumptions of the purpose of the CC on the flight deck. I believe the primary purposes of the CC are to (a) alert the pilot who is currently absent if the flying pilot becomes ill or in any other way erratic and (b) open the sodding door so that the other pilot can enter.
There has been speculation that the flying pilot might disable the CC but given the pilot will be strapped in (at least initially) I think the only way that could easily happen would be by means of a gun which is a different bag of worms.
Will this proposal solve the problem completely? NO! It is however comparatively easy to implement, from the airline's point of view does not increase crew costs although there may well be some increased costs for training.