Yes they would, holiday or not. They don't just sneak aboard covering their faces but are more likely to chat with the crew or at least say hello out of politeness. When you travel at the front you will often see people in plain clothes board and chat with the crew like old friends. Some are just non-flying company employees but very often they are company pilots.

deltayankee - thanks, I take your point. But in the large airlines such as BA, I am sure that not every 777 or 747 pilot knows the cabin crew on an A321 - they operate entirely different routes with different aircraft on different schedules. They may never have crossed paths.

What about if you work for a different company but fly the same type? Would an easyJet A319 captain introduce himself to the cabin crew on a BA A319 as a matter of politeness/safety etc.?

Nicholas49
 

You're right, in the big outfits you're unlikely to be recognised by anyone....just as well really, especially when travelling with your partner :} :}... and as for introducing yourself to the Cabin Crew as a pilot for another airline, don't do it... At best they will label you as someone looking for an upgrade or at worse label you as being a sad b *****...or both.

Anyhow, we're all professionals here on this forum..right? - so we know how it works.....just wait for the secret coded PA call of "does anyone here know how to fly an airplane?????"

Just like this incident, recently aired on Aircrash Investigator, or something similar ...

YouTube - Airplane thriller!

Would an ATCO be of any use in this scenario? As in an ATCO on-board, not via radio as ATC providing instructions etc.

Obviously I understand an ATCO unless they have had extensive pilot training above PPL will be of little use, but would they come in useful in some aspect? :confused:

T250
 

Personally like others here I'm not convinced of the value of having anyone else, other than trained Cabin Crew, involved, and even then personally I'd only use them to help reach the manuals and the like I couldn't reach from my seat - I'd handle my own checklists.

No disrepect but putting even a aviation savvy professional such as an ATC'er into the Flight Deck environment might well introduce CRM issues - even just trivial stuff like how to use the radios and the intercom could use up time best spent doing or monitoring something else.

No, only in the case of crews from the same base (not even the same airline if it is big). Anyway it is a Hollywood myth that the crew needs the help of passengers so crews worry much less about this question than anxious passengers.

Most of the time the remaining pilot will land on their own with a little help from cabin crew if needed; if there is a known company pilot on board he or she will help out but there will be no search of the cabin for passengers with some sort of qualification. And in the rare cases of double incapacitation that I can think of the passengers were also incapacitated so no help was possible (Helios, the Payne Stewart bizjet and so on).

Shirley your joking?

I have seen these sort of threads pop up here too often for my liking! :ooh: :ugh:

My personal SOP for left hand seat incapacitation:

(1) Summon cabin crew to pull P1 away from the controls.

(1) Remove the spare set of bars which are kept my flight case just for this sort of occasion, and upgrade myself to 4 stripes.

(2) Continue to destination or land at nearest suitable airport, as appropriate (otherwise known as 'flying the aeroplane').

(3) Log the time as P1 and sell my heroic, death-defying story to the press.

In all seriousness, passengers at the front would notice a bit of extra activity around the flightdeck door, but people at the back probably wouldn't realise anything was different until we stopped on the runway (only one steering tiller on my type, and my arms aren't long enough to reach it from the right hand seat).

G SXTY you can taxy the Dash without nose wheel steering just by using assymetric power and brakes. It takes a bit of juggling but a 90 degree turn off the runway followed by another 90 onto stand is possible and saves blocking the runway.

Thanks, I thought you probably could (if it works on a Duchess . . .) but I figured I'd be ready for a breather after missing all those schools and orphanages. :ok:

Nah, shut her down on the runway.

Especially if everybody's favourite Irish airline is hot on your heels. :E

Real-life example - Air Canada, January 2008
 

Surprised to see this incident not brought up. Over Ireland, an Air Canada 767 F/O had a mental breakdown and became incapacitated. A flight attendant, who was a qualified CPL (but not in anything related to passenger jets), was asked to occupy the F/O's seat to help with checklists and radio work. The flight landed safely in Shannon.

Summary report in Cabin Crew News:
Cabin Crew News: Air Canada flight attendant praised after taking over for incapacitated co-pilot
AAIU report - full detail
http://www.aaiu.ie/upload/general/11139-0.pdf

It's a good story, and good example of appropriate CRM - using the resources of the crew as fully as possible.