AA pilot dies in cockpit

[Recovering LSO]

Bad news from American today.

Do any of you "big show" players think the pilot would have called in a flight attendant to help out with basic cockpit tasks (my guess is their capabilities are limited in that regard, but that's just a hunch), or do you suspect he kept much of the details to himself until after landing?

Regardless, tough situation no doubt.

 

[Pags]

so....you'd like people to speculate?

 

[ea6bflyr]

Maybe the pilot shouldn't have had the fish.

 

[Recovering LSO]

so....you'd like people to speculate?

Call it what you want, but I'm interested from guys who do the job whether or not they can foresee a situation where having a FA join in the cockpit would prove helpful. More specifically, what level of training are they FAs given that might enable them to be useful?

 

[HAL Pilot]

We would first look for another pilot from our airline or another among the pax (we usually know who they are) and if there are none, we'd put a FA in the seat. If for no other reason this is to ensure we always have at least two people in the cockpit. How the FA is used is up to the pilot. Worst case they are a gopher and door opener.

It would be obvious from our PA for medical assistance and the flow of traffic in/out of the cockpit that something is up. If nothing else, we would be using the deliberator. So yes, some sort of announcement would probably be made. It would probably be along the lines that we have a medical situation, that we would be diverting, and that it will be a normal approach and landing. Once on the ground, please remain seated while emergency medical personal board and treat the patient.

One thing that also has to be ensured if someone dies inflight (I had a pax die over the Pacific going to HNL about 4 months ago) is that no one leaves the aircraft until given the okay by law enforcement. The aircraft is considered a crime scene until law enforcement rules the death as natural cases or an accident.

 

[FrankTheTank]

What is this Flight Attendant, you speak of?

 

[Pags]

Call it what you want, but I'm interested from guys who do the job whether or not they can foresee a situation where having a FA join in the cockpit would prove helpful. More specifically, what level of training are they FAs given that might enable them to be useful?

Busting chops dude.

A common HAC board scenario was would you put an AW up front if the 2P was incapacitated? Most figured it couldn't hurt to have a second set of hands as HAL described.

 

[Farva01]

This story made me think of another one:
http://www.cnn.com/2014/06/03/travel/737-emergency-pilot/

Would you rather have a non-airline pilot (Air Force jokes aside) or the flight attendant?
Either way if this guy is going to apply to the airlines this is a great "tell me about a time" story

 

[sevenhelmet]

We should cross-link this to the recent thread about one vs. two pilots on passenger flights. I can't remember the title.

 

[webmaster]

This made me think of that story also. I always wondered how you would verify a military pilot. Getting a deadhheading pilot up to help you out is a no brainier and the logical solution. Plus there is a somewhat decent chance that if they aren't currently qualified on your plane they probably fly a plane in the series of were qualified on it earlier in their careers. As Hal mentioned we know who's flying with us. Many come up and say hi before departure just in case we need anything.

As usual not surprised about the journalism on this. News and John Q. Public are amazed that the copilot could do his job and get them in safely.

More importantly. Condolences to his family. Fair winds....