I've got it on good authority twas Virgin Atlantic returning to LHR. :}

Not a good thing to broadcast. Better on the radio than the :eek: IC, I think.









Oh wait a minute - now someone is saying they heard the guilty party was a Dane in a new Citation that got off track on his way to New Jersey.
VHF Q being what it is..... :E

An almost identical incident occurred at my previous airline - US Airways Express (PSA) - we had a british captain working for us who made the same sort of comment as they were flying out of DCA. This guy was not liked by most of the FO's anyway and so the FO he was flying with decided to punish him by calling the FBI! That's right, the feds! This particular captain was arrested shortly thereafter - and lost his job to boot. Last I heard he beat the charges and was suing for his job back. Not sure whatever happened after that.

Rediculous to the extreme. Just as joking about this sort of thing carelessly isn't socially or professionally bright, unleashing the KGB on a fellow pilot that was making a joke is also not the sharpest tactic to take. That's not a smart precedent to set.

Roy Hudd

Muppet. Are you suggesting that an airline actually makes money on its routes rather than relying on billions of dollars of anti competitive aid to prop up an airline in Chapter 11? How novel! If there was slightly less aid & market forces were allowed to work, think you would find we would all be making a bit more money.

Exactly....or maybe p:mad:d off at the 100th new ridiculous security measure in force for crew....probably they were thinking of bombing the white house with toothpaste? Or with a bottle of Higland Spring Water?! :=

Whoever did that, if it is true, was probably frustrated by what the job has become these days through no fault of their own. This kind of conversation, even if as a joke, can only be the fruit of frustration and it is not uncommon given the present times. Silly them to transmit it through though!!!
I still laugh when I go through security with a crew of young attractive girls, and security takes off our lipsticks, facial wipes etc...we always joke with them that if we wanted to, a bunch of girls could do much more to let's say "distract" the pilots from their duties than anybody else.....we do not need any other weapons ;)

Please :rolleyes: ....give me some proper, juicy rumours now...

Any excuse for a BA bashing thread!

And from a supposed gossip you make up all of that?
Ever thought of working in politics?!?
:ugh:

FBW :yuk:

PS:Paddy you are so right...and whether this is true or not it could have happened on any airline, even in Monarch.

Just wondering:


Has anyone actually found a press account of this alleged incident? If so, please post.

And, just for the heck of it, if you know someone plotting against the president of the US, don't call the FBI...the Secret Service is the one to call (part of US Treasury dept.)


also just wondering:

could the alleged pilot involved in this alleged incident be the same pilot alleged to have flown the 3 engine 747, and just had a bit to get off his chest about things US?

And to the brilliant one , thinking that US airlines are propped up by the govt., any help after 9/11 was still too little and too late. Too many pilots and the other good folk who make an airline run have taken mamouth cuts to keep 'em flying. If airlines are competitive, its on the backs of the workers.

I knew an RAF VC10 Captain who gave a 5 minute arrival "PA" to Hong Kong (Kai Tak) Approach in the 1980s. It can happen to anyone guys. I guess the moral of the story is to double check your i/c selections before discussing anything contentious!:ok:

Stuck mike causes it also.

We have no idea what the comment was, in what context, or if it's even true.

dear bananasbananas


One of the many reasons I have such respect for douglas planes over others is this...

the MIC for the PA system is a huge telephone like thing. One must pick up a completely different instrument (than the RT mic), press a button/switch more than 3 feet away to actively address the passengers.

Unless one is used to calling approach control on the telephone, it would be unlikely to make the VC10 boo boo,

and if BA insists on using the intercom (not a bad idea), why not an always open (hot) intercom(pilot to pilot) system, interrupted only by RT ptt?

In more than 35 years in aviation I must have heard this at least once a year.
Two sorts of pilots?
Those who have done this and those about to do it?

If this was true, am sure a couple of F-15's would have been sent to intercept.
Before spouting a complete load of sh*t, why not wait for some facts!

I've never been too keen about chatting over the intercom in a transport jet cockpit. A couple of the females where I work want to call V1, rotate over the interphone so they can hear it through their designer headphones. Reaching for a mic button on the yoke or the panel at that phase of flight is a little distracting in my opinion. And yes, I have used interphone in years past in commuter and military aircraft.

Some years ago a Delta captain was fired for, among other things, inadvertantly using nautical language over the PA while sitting at the gate. He was about to make an announcement when the probationary (i.e. low paid) FE attempted to reimbuse him for a meal the captain had generously bought. With the mike still keyed, the pax heard "Here, take your G-- D--- money, I don't want it!"

A few weeks ago I heard a Continental pilot give a long PA brief about the weather and sun and fun at Fort Lauderdale. He was transmitting on guard coming out of EWR so he got a lot of feedback on his performance.

Any large transport aeroplane I have flown, the intercom can be locked on by the switch on the control column. I've both used it as SOP in a company and not used it, never had any problems either way. There is a hell of a lot of cr@p being posted on this site recently! :mad:

Maybe on the ones you've flown but I've never seen this on Boeings and Airbuses.

But, it may be spec'ed out that way at some carriers, I'll take a closer look at the yoke when I go back to work.

On a 737 you can lock the interphone on. The advantage of using the intercom is you can use ANR headsets which stops pilots going deaf! The 737 is NOT a quiet cockpit at 300kts!!!!

Airbubba
I fly the B757/B767. I can assure you, it is there!

A locked intercom button is a customer option on both makes

Whatever was said unintentionally over the air was probably only highlighting how easy it would be to destroy a large building using the tools of the trade, ie an aeroplane, rather than smuggling airside something far less effective in one's socks!