Boarding before the flight crew

[Maddie]

I, for my sins, am a very, very, nervous flyer, who has to fly once/twice a week cos of family commitments between Ireland and the UK. I have on more than one occasion observed the flight crew joing the plane as boarding is taking place. Normally this is on early morning flights.
Is this common practice?
Thanks for your views.

[NudgingSteel]

I don't know how common it is, but don't worry, it's certainly not sinister! Especially on the first flight of the day for that crew / aircraft (later flights, the crew will of course stay on board for the short turnaround). Look at it this way, the crew have to get on board at some point and they certainly won't depart until they have completed the walkround inspection and all the required paperwork in the flight deck (which usually shouldn't take too long).

As a pilot friend of mine pointed out, most pilots have families and all are just as afraid of dying as any nervous passengers. The difference is, the crew know how safe it is, and how well trained they are, and how many backup systems the aircraft has, and what turbulence feels like, etc etc. Although I guess this won't necessarily make you any less nervous when you next fly!

[Maddie]

Thanks for your reply. Very helpful and re-assuring.


Thanks

Maddie

[NW3]

Maddie,

When you're next flying, come up to the front and say hello after the flight. Having a quick peek at the pointy end might de-mistify things a bit. Things tend to be quite busy before the flight, but if there's an air traffic delay or something, we're often up there with nothing much to do.

NW3

[Maddie]

Thanks NW3.

I might just take your advice one of these days. I am really trying to conquer my fear. I fly out of necessity not choice. I only started flying 3 years ago, after a long long break.

Many years ago I flew from Dubin to Cyprus on a Cyprus Airlines flight. It had been delayed for several hours and I was scared silly! On that occasion I was brought into the cockpit mid-flight to have a look around, to try and calm me down. Obviously that wouldn't happen now. I must say it did seem to work, though maybe the fact I had taken my outbound and return calming tablets also
helped.

Thank you again.

Maddie

[Globaliser]

I am really trying to conquer my fear.Maddie, you might want to have a look at one of the fear of flying courses that are around. There are quite a few, but the ones that I have links for at my fingertips are associated with BA (http://www.aviatours.co.uk) and Virgin (http://www.flyingwithoutfear.info). One advantage (amongst many) of doing this is that you should have many opportunities during the day to ask questions of people who are there to help by answering them. Although operating crew on a revenue flight will, I'm sure, always want to try to help and explain things, there are other jobs that always demand attention. But on one of these courses the focus is on you and what you need.

[Glasgow_Flyer]

Other thing you could do is book a trial flying lesson - I used to be a nervous passenger and dealt with it head on by getting a PPL, worked a treat!

[Richard Spandit]

Just to clarify, ask the cabin crew to ask us before trying to "come up to the front" as trying to gain access to the cockpit at any time could be misconstrued in these paranoid times

[Maddie]

Thank you all again for your comments.

Please rest assured I would NEVER think of taking the earlier advice literally, and that was even before Thursdays' events. If I did try to go in and introduce myself I would expect at the least to find myself tied up and trusseted down an emergency slide to an awaiting police vehicle. I would also imagine that the airline in question may not be too keen to let me fly with them again, and quite justifiably so.

Wish you all the best with your work in these difficult times. You really do a brilliant job.

[Bumz_Rush]

The flight deck crew would arrive on board often as the pax were boarding, and certainly pax were told to remain seated until he flight deck crew had departed.......

Actually I would have expected a standing ovation, but then perhaps not......

The last flight I made in a Yak 40, was deserving of the ovation, as the weather was "not good", and the 2 adf approach was awsome......I would not have been happy on a Cat 2 ILS......

So in future, with the high crew security checks, perhaps they will continue to arrive after the pax.....

Bumz

[Sparkle]

Just to clarify:
The passengers should NOT be boarded BEFORE the Flight or the CabinCrew! Especially on the first flight of the day.
Before anybody turns up there are a variety of security, safety and technical checks that have to be performed and all of those according to checklists. With all these checks and crosschecks forms have to be filled in by the various members, including the dispatcher, de-icer, fueller, caterer, engineers, cabin crew and pilots.
When the pilots approach "the cold aircraft" they check the general appearance: chocks, wings, ground power unit if appl, is it a cold, wet morning? Is there any ice on the ground? Anything else that could be slippery for the pax? A thorough walk round is performed shortly afterwards, and it should entail more than just kicking the tyres!
Then the cockpit gets a safety check: gear lever down, park brake on, all electrics off, emergency equipment in place: even the expiry date on the fire extinguisher is checked!
Then the plane is switched on: if you're lucky you have a little engine in the tail of the plane that will give us our own electricity and provide us with some air to run the heater or the cooler.
The technical first flight checks run through all the systems: electrics, hydraulics, pneumatics, all the warning systems, all the computers, all the paperwork, incl insurance certificates and radio licences, the tech log ( where you can read about what the engineers had to do overnight ) are checked, to name but a few.

Now: If there is a fault with anything that any of the crew in conjunction with their knowledge, training and experience is NOT happy to launch with, passenger boarding is delayed and the fault rectified in hopefully the shortest of time.
So: boarding passengers, without having the green light from the dispatcher, who has the green light from the Captain, is a big NONO!

The last thing anybody wants to have to do is deboard an airplane due to any fault that has been picked up during the first flight checks.

So, to answer your Q: The whole compliment of the crew should be there and briefed before you arrive.

happy landings

sparkle

[Torque2]

Sorry Sparkle but there are procedures in place to allow this very thing to happen. It is a regular thing and allows for the different report times for Flight Deck Crew and Cabin Crew in order to comply with Flight Time Limitations. :ok:

[piton]

Not to mention, Sparkle, that some airlines have engineers or ground technicians who carry out the "daily" preflight. It is often not done by aircrew - certainly in the larger airlines.... Gives the tech department time to fix any problems before we even get near the aircraft. Mind you our aircraft are only on the ground for a few hours at most - often landing at 2 am and heading out again at 5ish. We don't do preflights at our home base as a general rule and often board after pax boarding has started. Cabin crew will be on board about 30 mins before we arrive and have done the cabin security checks.

[bycrewlgw]

We allow Pax to board before the flight deck crew arrive. Providing the aircraft isn't being refuelled ( if it is then either an engineer has to be present or refulling is suspended) and all the cabin security and safety checks are complete.

[Sparkle]

Ok, I guess different airlines have different procedures.

Of course our engineers do the dailies, but I doubt they check the more nitty gritty stuff, like ADCs, TCASes aso
Still, not a good idea having to deboard a whole plane because of a fault that only just has been picked up.

sparkle (not from a too small an outfit)

[primreamer]

Sparkle,
I do not wish to divert the thread here, but before you "doubt" what your engineers do on a daily check maybe you should enquire as to what is actually covered on a daily in your company. You might find that we engineers are allowed to get involved in the "nitty gritty" stuff you speak of and are usually very adept at rectifying any defects found on a pre flight.
In my present company a TCAS test is covered although an ADC BITE is not. However in a previous company the ADC's were tested and certified in the daily check. Requirements will vary between outfits, as a combination of aircraft maintenance schedule and company policy.