flight-crew
Well-known member
- Joined
- Dec 16, 2001
- Posts
- 167
I'm about to do some serious venting and I hope to get some good replies on what you think about this whole issue.
Ever since 9/11, the whole jumpseating deal has really been screwed up and ruined. Here's where we are at:
FedEx, UPS, and most of the other cargo carriers - NO JUMPSEATING ALLOWED WHATSOEVER by offline pilots.
All other majors - No cockpit jumpseating allowed.
The airline that you work for (or major associated with your regional) - You can cockpit jumpseat, and some require employment verification via telephone.
Now I'm going to ask a serious question which probably represents the biggest double standard out there! What does the FAA need to ride on the cockpit jumpseat? Their FAA I.D. and an FAA piece of paper authorizing them to jumpseat. That's it. Yet for most of us to jumpseat, we present our company I.D., our airmen certificate, our medical certificate, have our employment verified by telephone, and sometimes also present our drivers license and passport. That's 5 forms of I.D., plus a telephone call to verify employment! How do we know that the FAA guy isn't some terrorist who made up a fake FAA I.D. and jumpseat authorization paper. If the FAA is going to be cockpit jumpseating then we should be allowed to on ALL AIRLINES.
This has serverly affected the lives of thousands and thousands of pilots. To this day I can't believe that ALPA hasn't taken a stronger stance on this. I personally don't think we should have returned to work until this whole jumpseat thing was worked out, or at least some hard deadline was set. If they want to set up some type of national verification center then fine, but lets not take 10 years to do it! I'm not sure if all of these new jumpseating policies and procedures are FAA, Company, or a little bit of both, but it needs to be dealt with immediately. I'm tired of the procrastination and delays. This could go on for years.
One last point that I would like to make. I would hope that someday every airline would allow unlimited jumpseaters. To the ones that already do today, kudos to them. It just kills me to see a plane full of empty seats leave the gate with 3 or 4 jumpseaters who couldn't get on because the airline would only allow one jumpseater. The seats are empty anyway, so what difference does it make.
I think the best thing that we can do at this point is to write ALPA and let them know that we are serious about restoring cockpit jumpseating. This current system is completely unacceptable.
Ever since 9/11, the whole jumpseating deal has really been screwed up and ruined. Here's where we are at:
FedEx, UPS, and most of the other cargo carriers - NO JUMPSEATING ALLOWED WHATSOEVER by offline pilots.
All other majors - No cockpit jumpseating allowed.
The airline that you work for (or major associated with your regional) - You can cockpit jumpseat, and some require employment verification via telephone.
Now I'm going to ask a serious question which probably represents the biggest double standard out there! What does the FAA need to ride on the cockpit jumpseat? Their FAA I.D. and an FAA piece of paper authorizing them to jumpseat. That's it. Yet for most of us to jumpseat, we present our company I.D., our airmen certificate, our medical certificate, have our employment verified by telephone, and sometimes also present our drivers license and passport. That's 5 forms of I.D., plus a telephone call to verify employment! How do we know that the FAA guy isn't some terrorist who made up a fake FAA I.D. and jumpseat authorization paper. If the FAA is going to be cockpit jumpseating then we should be allowed to on ALL AIRLINES.
This has serverly affected the lives of thousands and thousands of pilots. To this day I can't believe that ALPA hasn't taken a stronger stance on this. I personally don't think we should have returned to work until this whole jumpseat thing was worked out, or at least some hard deadline was set. If they want to set up some type of national verification center then fine, but lets not take 10 years to do it! I'm not sure if all of these new jumpseating policies and procedures are FAA, Company, or a little bit of both, but it needs to be dealt with immediately. I'm tired of the procrastination and delays. This could go on for years.
One last point that I would like to make. I would hope that someday every airline would allow unlimited jumpseaters. To the ones that already do today, kudos to them. It just kills me to see a plane full of empty seats leave the gate with 3 or 4 jumpseaters who couldn't get on because the airline would only allow one jumpseater. The seats are empty anyway, so what difference does it make.
I think the best thing that we can do at this point is to write ALPA and let them know that we are serious about restoring cockpit jumpseating. This current system is completely unacceptable.