Dumb Pilot
Well-known member
- Joined
- Apr 8, 2006
- Posts
- 1,570
I think your assertion is absolutely incorrect.
When cockpit doors became hardened, the presence of another person in the cockpit was to ensure that if the remaining flight crew member became incapacitated, there would be someone on the flight deck to open the door in the case of emergency.
You can access the flight deck in case of incapacitation, you don't need a cabin attendant in there to do that..! But you do need a person there to look through the peephole if you don't have security cameras...!
All this discussion about having two people on the flight deck as a way to stop a lunatic hell bent on destruction is ridiculous to the max.
You really think that a C/A would prevent this from happening again? That is just plain stupid! As she comes in since you are already doing your Darth Vader impersonation (or at least you should be) with your O2 mask on, you just reach up and start dumping the pressure, when the bells and whistles start ringing you tell her to sit down and strap her seatbelt.., Guess what? On most narrow body A/C's you just added another blockage to the entry to the flight deck.., she provided it!
Now you start an emergency descent and bellow 10K you push your favorite rudder all the way to the wall...! Voil?! Big hole on the ground with two people on the flight deck and all....!
We need to address the real problem..., something that has been a mayor problem for years now and it is the lack of reliability of the "self reporting" system that we have on this industry.., it doesn't work for alcohol nor drug abuse, and it certainly hasn't worked for mental health issues.
If there would be a system in place where the doctor can communicate directly to the company when they ground a pilot for any reason, this would have not happened, the reporting doesn't even have to break patient confidentiality, it doesn't even have to explain the reasons to the company.