Not knowing the circumstances of this particular situation I won't offer comment based solely on media reports. To do that would be a disservice to fellow pilots.
However, I too need to point out that "catching 40 winks" in a controlled fashion on the flight deck is both professional and increasingly becoming the norm. Our Ops manual allows for it and goes into great detail as to the whens and the hows this can be done. I will not reproduce all the details here but obviously must be done only in the cruise phase of flight, with the full agreement of others, to be not more than 20 minutes in duration and with no mitigating factors i.e. weather, system failures and the like. The actual section of the manual runs about 7 pages.
Canada is moving away from a prescriptive type of regulatory system to a Safety Management System. This allows well documented up to date research to be more easily incorporated into daily flight operations.
As for the inference by some that F/O's are there to keep the seat warm I beg to differ. F/O's are fully trained and qualified to operate the aircraft in all flight regimes. In any operation I have been involved in in the past 28 years that has certainly been the case. It is certainly the case with our aircraft.
Regards
Last edited by 604guy; 21st Jul 2003 at 23:54.