PAX BOARDING

[Viscount Sussex]

I heard of a couple of airlines that are starting to board pax without the flight deck crew being on the aircraft. Have anyone heard anything about it? And if so, what are the views?
Thanks.

[You splitter]

Sounds a bit dodgy to me.....
What if there was an APU fire? Or any number of problems could come up. We have often used a 'dispatch crew'. Once had a crew arriving on a positioning sector to take over operation of an aircraft. Serious ATC flow restrictions that day, but luckly they had an on-time slot. Unluckly their position flight didn't. They were due to arrive -30 from departure. We had another crew sitting around, who while not able to operate , preaperd the aircraft, fuelled the aircraft (whilst talking to the operating skipper on his mobile, re wx and notams and how much he wanted). So whilst the crew waited for the bags to arrive and got through customs and out to the aircraft, the other crew had done everything for them, including boarding the passenegers. they got on, went through their checklists and then bu**erd off on time.

I have no problem with that, but not to sure on passengers boarding without any flight deck in attendance.

[nohat]

Yes. I work for a Company that does this. The cabin staff have all been trained to deal with an APU fire ect.

[Silkman]

Several airlines do allow boarding as long as there is an engineer on the flight deck.(when you can find one !)

[Blended-winglets]

JMC also currently training their cabin crew to deal with APU fire so that boarding can commence without flightdeck...good idea?

[Captain Speeking]

It depends on your insurance company - certainly ours requires a Captain or an SFO on or around the aircraft before boarding can commence.