Off duty pilot arrested for attempted sabotage

[pi314]

I get that these guys need to move around the system, but my point is that the airlines could provide regular passenger cabin seats for them, rather than allowing them cockpit access. That would cost airlines though, by removing some revenue generating seats from the public.
I assume that off duty staff might have a beer or several after work, before entering the cockpit for their "jumpseat" free lift?

Yep, there actually are some carriers, usually smaller freight outfits, that will provide positive space commutes, but I can't see jump seating going away as a general practice since it has worked without a problem for decades.

As for downing a pop for the ride home, they sure couldn't get away with accessing the flight deck if in uniform after that, not legally anyway, and even if they did the Superman phone booth clothing change into business casual they'd be risking forfeiting their jumpseat privilege if not their license if someone could smell it on their breath.

 

[caravanman]

It wasn’t the fact that he was a jumpseater that was a threat. It was the fact that he (apparently) had some untreated mental illness that led to him taking psychedelic mushrooms before the flight. In the history of commercial flight, there have probably been more instances of a jumpseating pilot helping to prevent a tragedy than instigating one.

My point is simply that if the chap was not in the jumpseat in the first place, but in the passenger cabin, he would have been less of a danger, and that seems like a fact, not a "knee jerk reaction"?
I will be looking to book my next flight soon anyway, so let's change the subject...

 

[UserNameRequired]

Not the same thing as a cockpit ride, but at one time, if you had even a private pilot license, the FAA would allow you to visit control towers and ATC facilities.
Not sure if they still do…

Yes these are still offered in the area I am located. I have been in tower and approach areas twice over the last five years. COVID put a stop to the tours for a couple years before they started doing them again.

 

[Matthew H Fish]

This is a totally unrelated incident, but I was curious to read about it so soon after this one:

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/former...ent-threaten-shoot-captain-commercial-flight/Apparently a copilot who was authorized to carry a gun in the cockpit threatened the flight's pilot because the pilot wanted to divert due to a medical emergency. Just like with the original story, there is a big "WTH" element to this for me, and perhaps even more so.
I guess my overall question to this is the same as before: despite air travel being covered with so many levels of process and procedure, how does the actual level of safety compare to something like train travel, which on its surface, is much more casual?

 

[tgstubbs1]

Wouldn't a bunch of holes in a plane's cockpit and instrument panel wreck the plane?

 

[Trogdor]

I guess my overall question to this is the same as before: despite air travel being covered with so many levels of process and procedure, how does the actual level of safety compare to something like train travel, which on its surface, is much more casual?

All major US carriers combined have had a total of one passenger fatality in the past 22 years.

 

[Matthew H Fish]

All major US carriers combined have had a total of one passenger fatality in the past 22 years.

Other carriers have had more. I don't know if that is just because there are statistically more small flights, if those small flights are often in locations that are inherently more dangerous (flying out of smaller airports in rougher terrain), or that smaller airlines have less resources for safety.
But it also made me want to check Amtrak statistics. There have been plenty of incidents, including with fatalities, on Amtrak, but in the past 20 years, only two of those seem to be due to operator error.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_accidents_on_AmtrakIt is a very apples to oranges comparison, but Amtrak has to deal with things that airlines don't. Every day Amtrak trains cross thousands of at-grade crossings, and yet collisions with vehicles are thankfully very rare. And that is something that commercial air pilots don't have to deal with.
I guess my main point is that incident involving passengers or crew are thankfully very rare on Amtrak, despite there being many more opportunities to do damaging things on Amtrak. To take a relatively innocent example (because I feel it is bad luck to even mention too much!), carrying fireworks is illegal on both airlines and Amtrak---but if a passenger or Amtrak crew member thought it would be a fun "prank" to set off fireworks on the train, there is not much to stop them. So I wasn't saying that airlines are unsafe---I was more commenting on how safe train travel is, despite people having many opportunities to abuse the system.

 

[railiner]

It is a very apples to oranges comparison, but Amtrak has to deal with things that airlines don't. Every day Amtrak trains cross thousands of at-grade crossings, and yet collisions with vehicles are thankfully very rare. And that is something that commercial air pilots don't have to deal with.

Yes and no....Airliner's have rare "near misses" at airports from other aircraft while on active runways or taxiiways, but much more common near misses from vehicles while entering and leaving ramp area's of airports...

 

[Brian Battuello]

Excellent New York Times article. Should be readable:

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/10/...e_code=1.9Uw.mUXM.RaKO1L1nN29y&smid=url-share