Sparrow holds up Speedbird
 

I understand from clients that their flight last night BA633 ATH-LHR was delayed 2 hours to catch a sparrow on the flight deck which had apparently gained entry at LHR on the way out. True or false?

I am not sure that I would have delayed for this. I appreciate that it could be distracting if it stared fluttering about at a critical stage of flight. Breadcrumbs laced with brandy on the jump seat could have sedated it.

Anyway, it was a pretty speedy bird on the way out.

Isn't there some regulation in your part of the world whereby animals on board an aircraft have to be restrained?

Pretty much everything needs to be restrained for T/O.

Wild animal lose in the cockpit, perfectly fine for operating the aircraft...

Petty a cat was not available. I wonder what the delay code would be? The Hellenic Air Force uses falcons (the animals not the F-16 to chase birds from the runway.

Not on UK charter flights to CFU/IBZ/TFS/etc., etc..

That would apply to many of the pax on charter flights from Spain then :hmm:

Sorry Fantom posts crossed. We are of the same mind.

On a Barbados to Miami flight we had a reported bee on board and a passenger allergic to bee bites. I did a quick walk through the cabin and found no bee and took off. Yes, the woman could have been bitten but out of 200 pax how would the bee pick her out? We fly into areas of known thunderstorms so most flights are exposed to some risk. Bees and sparrows seem minor compared to that.

A bee in the cabin is one thing. A bird in the flight deck is just a bit more problematic.

Gee.....we had an FAA inspector in the cockpit once. Think I would've rather had a sparrow !!:cool:

DC-ATE, I agree, a bee or a sparrow is prefferable to an FAA guy in the jump seat. Several times I couldn't do the safest thing because the FAA guy was watching so had to obey the letter of the law. One time in a 737 descending to 8,000 ft the controller said expedite through 9,000, opposite direction traffic at 10,000. Because of the FAA guy I deployed the speedbrakes leveling at 10 to 250 knots to avoid a violation. Only the FAA adminstrator can authorize more than 250 below 10 is what I told the FAA guy quoting their regulations. I was VMC so made sure it wasn't going to require an emergency violation of FAR's. Any other day I would have complied.

A bird that $hits on the control panel - so that it all drips down inside? Yes, I'd say that's worth delaying for. :uhoh:

Reminds us of snakes on a plane movie

Bees, buddy, bees, not dogs or snakes!!!

Now.
 

I see we are talking about the birds and the bees...

Oh and not to mention the sparrow, no problem with the W & B or is it? :p

A sparrow fluttering around the flight deck on short finals to minima is probably not over helpful.

Good call, even if inconvenient for all.

A sparrow is small enough to get amongst the rudder pedals, into the avionics, and everywhere in between. Plenty of cooling ducts, spaces, and the less than happy thought of a frightened, crapping bird flying around the flight deck just as you get airborne... then an engine fails.... distracted, and it gets messy... the lawyers are going to get medieval on you.

Not even a debate. Find the bird or we don't go flying.

None, provided it stays "airborne". But as soon as it lands on the coaming panel, wind in that back trim quick or you're done-for!

It wasn't a snake
 

Only if you are unpressurized..... :-) I dimly think.