AA and Photos

[SammyG]

Since I'm an aviation dork, most of the time when I fly I like to try and get a photo of the cockpit after my flight has landed. I have found that Delta, ATA, and Jetblue always say "Yes" when I ask the flight attendant or Captain if I may take a picture of the front office. But both times I have asked on American Airlines, they say no.

Is this a general company policy? If so, I guess I can understand, since they were more directly affected by 9-11 than Jetblue, Delta, and ATA.

Just curious, thanks.

 

[Inconceivable]

AA had the misfortune of "training" one of the 9/11 hijackers. A friend of mine was doing "his" IOE for the 76 in early '01 when a Marwan al Shehhi stopped by the cockpit and asked some questions. The check airman gave him a 10+ minute demonstration of the FMS, MCP, and AP/AT while awaiting departure from the gate. I am told he was exceptionally polite, curious, and took a number of pictures, including the crew.

Marwan flew AA175 into the World Trade Center four months later.

 

[FlyChicaga]

So basically what you are saying is, be cautious when a 30-year old Middle Eastern man begins asking questions about the autoflight systems, but welcome young persons interested in aviation to come up and get excited about visiting the cockpit and taking pictures with the pilots?

The times when we bring up two and three year olds and have their parents take pictures of them wearing the headsets and holding the yoke are what really makes this job fun for me. I think those experiences are most of the reason I became a pilot. I'd hate to see pilots keep children from experiencing that, from "terrorism paranoid."

 

[DenverDude2002]

Ive never had issues with AA, heck, last January the captain let me sit in the captains seat and took my picture. Guess it depends on the crew and what kind of mood they are in. I have never been told I couldnt take a pic of the cockpit, and thats been with AA/ASA/Comair/Delta/America West/American Eagle/Continental/Continental Express

 

[SammyG]

Well I am Puerto Rican and have a good tan...maybe that's too close to Arab for them....plus my first name is Omar (its a hispanic name too, not just Arabic).

At LGA yesterday I was taking photos with my new zoom lens of the afternoon LGA traffic. There's this nice area in the LGA terminal, with rocking chairs where you can sit down in front of this huge window where you can sit and look at the traffic, and next to that are some escalators that take you up a little higher, the signs for the escalators say that this is where you walk to get to the rental car facilities at LGA.

Well, if you go up the escalators, right after you get off, there is an even better view of the entire airfield through the same window. LGA control tower is also basically right outside this window, and I guess someone in the tower noticed me, 'cause after about 45 minutes an NYPD or LGA policeman showed up and told me I couldn't take pictures anymore. He asked for my ID and wrote down my info and asked me a few questions, just to make sure there was nothing funny about me I guess. I said "I'm sorry, I didn't see any signs or anything."

Funniest part about this was that at first he was looking at me all serious, all business like at first...., and then when he asked me what I did for a living and I said "I work at Kennedy Space Center in Florida with Operations Security", and I showed him my work business card from there....he immediately mellowed down, as if he thought "Ohh...ok..he's one of us."

I thought about adding a comment like "Hey pal, I probably have more security clearance than you do....I work in and around the freakin Space Shuttle"...but I decided that probably wasn't a good idea.

I can understand he was just doing his job, and I put the camera away immediately and apologized again...but its just sad that a guy can't take friggin pictures at an airport anymore.

 

[Inconceivable]

I thought about adding a comment like "Hey pal, I probably have more security clearance than you do....I work in and around the freakin Space Shuttle"...but I decided that probably wasn't a good idea.

Well remember about ten years ago when a member of Mensa applied to a west-coast police department and was rejected on the sole grounds that his IQ test was too HIGH? Apparently being too smart correlated with poor long-term job satisfaction and high turnover. It went all the way to the supreme court who upheld the appeals court with out comment that employers, including gov't, have the right to establish minimum standards for employment--and that it could be applied to being "overqualified" for the position.

Something to think about when you want to argue with a cop--he may not be a Mensan. He may only have been selected on the basis of size and willingness to put up with society's sh!t.

MCO and LHR have programs where spotters are "registered" and given IDs--they are smart enough to realize that av enthusiasts will be the first to recognize when something is amiss and probably TAKE A PICTURE of it! Imagine, free security with recording capability.

Of course this requires the cops and administrators to admit to themselves that they can't do everything and that "outsiders" might have something to contribute. Kind of a big leap for your average APD.