I love this story so much I am copying it from anotherForum for your viewing pleasure

[inthegoo]

Ya know I have a funny story about a captain who was in a interesting predicament one snowy night in ORD,

It was going to be the last leg of a long day that had streched itself from a scheduled 13 hr duty day, right up to the limit of 16 hrs,

it was day 3 of 4 and he was tired after all that days challenges,

the nasty UAL gate agent ran down and said "we need to board now, dispatch just called and said if we dont have the door closed by 35 after then you will be illegal",

the next morning is one leg back to ORD and then he is done for several days,

out of curiousity and just in case they cancel the captain calls AA on his cell and they say that there is a delayed flight leaving for his home city in 90 minutes with tons of seats.

the agent hands the paperwork to the FO with 5 minutes to spare, the flight is a full boat to somewhere, and the lav is MEL'd

just then the captain passes some pretty rank gas, and the FO says, "hey man that stinks! do you need to go take a dump?"

the captain ponders this question for a moment and says, "why yes, I do need to go take a dump" he grabs his USA today and heads up the jetway,

about 30 minutes later he comes back to the gate, pushes his way through 66 pissed off pax, goes down to an empty and dark RJ, his bag is in the hole, he takes his stuff and heads for AA,

DONT U JUST LOVE HAPPY ENDINGS!

 

[labbats]

Not if I was commuting home on that flight.

 

[COOPERVANE]

Not if I was commuting home on that flight.

Oh really? would you kick his a$$ and make him leave on time?

 

[JustaNumber]

Not if I was commuting home on that flight.

You would want to be on that flight in that weather after his 16 hour day? Not me. Those passengers should have thanked him.

 

[labbats]

If he had the stones to call in fatigued I would have been fine with it. Seems he danced around the issue and I don't respect that. I've called in fatigued many times, but never left a planeload of passengers to find out their predicament from the gate agent while I was roaming the terminal.

 

[JustaNumber]

If he had the stones to call in fatigued I would have been fine with it. Seems he danced around the issue and I don't respect that. I've called in fatigued many times, but never left a planeload of passengers to find out their predicament from the gate agent while I was roaming the terminal.

Unfortunately, the airlines tell you they are interested in safety, yet financially encourage flying fatigued. If the above pilot had used the fatigue call, he would have lost pay for that leg, and if he worked at ASA he would also have had his minimum monthly guarantee adjusted for not being available for a trip. By letting the FAR's stop him from flying the trip, the passengers end up in the exact same situation, but he now gets cancellation pay. Seems to me his airline encouraged him to do what he did.

 

[Abernathy]

word.

 

[GINCHBLASTER]

Sounds like a fake story.

 

[XPOO]

This totally sounds like something inthegoo would do. Heck, it probably was him. One of those, "Suppose I have a friend who..." stories.

 

[homerjdispatch]

We all know about J.I., right XP? Real team player there!