Leaving cockpit un-manned?
 

About half way through a long haul flight back to LHR on Sunday I saw who I took to be the Captain go down the left hand aisle to the galley. About five minutes later I saw the First Officer slip into the toilet in front of me. Strange I thought, must have missed the Captain returning. But a couple of minutes after the FO had gone back to the cockpit the Captain returned too.

Surely this is not a safe proceedure, leaving the cockpit unmanned even during the cruise. There may of course have been a third pilot hidden away, but if there was his bladder didn't require emptying for 9 hours.

Aircraft was an Airbus 340-300.

Possibably had a relief crew flying the aircraft at the time. IIRC all flights over 8 hours are required to carry a relief crew.

There would have been someone in the cockpit, don't worry.

Or even a fourth? Many long flights have a full relief crew (ie another captain and another first officer).

Depending on the country or registration and the airline in question, flights operated by a two man crew are limited to 8 hours duty time, if the flight is longer than that, a 3rd crewmember may be carried or in our case they are operated with double crew.

To compound the confusion, crewmembers are permitted free off-duty travel but must travel in uniform, they sometimes end up sitting in the cockpit due to a lack of cabin seats, to futher compound the confusion, on some of our aircraft we have crew bunks and a toilet inside the cockpit so its quite possible for 6 people to be in there!

So the chances of both operating crew leaving the cockpit unattended are hopefully ZERO!

Mutt

Nothing to worry about - the wireless operator was flying :)

Just for a lark, airlines should have random volunteers dressed up as tha Captains and FOs, all circulating around the flight and talking to passengers - just so they'd ask themselves later - "then who's flying?"

Better still - a flashmob of passengers turning up for a flight in pilot's uniforms.

BOFH

True story:

Just after the end of fighting in WW2 (Pacific theater) Major Bailey absolutely had to get from island A to island B right away. He was not a person to meddle with. So they found him space on an overnight C-54 cargo flight. He had to fend for himself trying to sleep on the cargo.

Eventually he noticed that it was getting light outside ... so he went up to the cockpit to see how things were going. NO ONE HOME!! The crew was napping on the cargo just as he had.

Perhaps the cockpit was unmanned, but that does not preclude a woman at the controls.

:} Yes, it was unmanned, but it was womanned!!!!!

I'd much rather unmanned compared to womanned....


Q sexist bashers