Flight attendant helps pilot land plane

MarkE

MarkE

Greetings, Professor Falken
Score one for the sexy stew!


http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2010/06/flight-attendant-helps-pilot-land-plane.html

A flight attendant who has a pilot's license replaced an ill first officer during a landing at O'Hare International Airport, officials said today.

The co-pilot of an American Airlines plane that departed San Francisco on Monday fell sick en route to Chicago, said American spokeswoman Mary Frances Fagan.

"He was unable to continue his duties and he moved to the passenger cabin," Fagan said, adding that the flight's captain checked to see whether any off-duty airline pilots were on board the flight.

A female flight attendant advised the captain that she is a commercial pilot and the captain asked her to sit in the right-hand seat in the cockpit, Fagan said.

"The flight attendant became the first officer on landing," she said. "The cockpit crew did an outstanding job handling the situation."

The flight attendant helped the captain by reading off check list of procedures and she handled other tasks, in addition to providing a second set of eyes in the cockpit, Fagan said.

The plane, a Boeing 767 with 225 passengers and seven crew members on board, arrived at O'Hare at 4:24 p.m. Monday. The landing was normal, officials said.

The condition of the ill first officer was not serious, officials said. He was met on the ground at O'Hare by paramedics and transported to a local hospital, where he was treated and released.

The first officer was based in Chicago. He was resting on Tuesday, officials said.
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Yet another reason for flight attendants to be cross trained as pilots! After all the pilots are already cross trained as flight attendants!

Joe
 
It is interesting that he asked her to come up and "help" which may or may not have been the case. I would have rolled into the ORD SP. Goes back to the age old discussion of whether you would ask for help. I personally would not because flying the plane SP is far easier than flying the plane SP anyway and having to babysit someone who is supposed to be helping.
 
Mid flight she changed her duties from a Flight Attendant to First Officer. Will she be able to keep her higher Flight Attendant pay for this trip?
 
TheresaPilot said:
Ditto! I'm so jealous.
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Right after all the TWA pilots, but yeah... do that sort of thing you should just be hired. Especially if you're a FA.


I remember one day both me and the captain were running extremely late in Denver. We had come in from repoing a plane late due to thunderstorms. The FA knew where we were (tracked us on FlightAware) and took the initiative and lassoed another FA who was on a 1 hour sit to help board (our GOM says you needed 2 Mesa crewmembers on board to go ahead with the boarding), printed out our release, ordered the correct amount of fuel, did my weight and balance (including shifting a few passengers to the back to fix a CG issue), programmed the FMS (correctly!! it took me a while to figure that out!) and called and got our clearance. Oh, and she served chilled bottles of water to the passengers while they were waiting (this was when UA still had those mini-bottles of water instead of only the liter bottles.)

When me and the captain arrived all I had to do was a quick check of the W&B numbers, which was correct. They were so sure we were going to take a delay on that flight but we managed to get out on time.

Some people might have been upset at her for "usurping" pilot duties, but I call that taking the initiative. We both were like 'Are you a pilot?' and she grinned sheepishly and nodded. We told her she should apply (well we both told her she should apply to a different airline, but that we would love to have her at Mesa) and she sighed and said she only has like 270 hours. I was like 'Girl, thats more than 3 other people in my new hire class!'

At the time it was pilots, not HR people, who did the hiring at Mesa and the captain was friends with one of them. She got hired! Unfortunately I believe she got furloughed in ground school.
 
Pilotdude3407 said:
I personally would not because flying the plane SP is far easier than flying the plane SP anyway and having to babysit someone who is supposed to be helping.
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Someone that doesn't know the airplane is still very capable of handling traffic calls, finding charts, etc. I don't see that as babysitting.

Even if it is just helping look out for traffic, I always will take another set of eyes and ears to help me out - seems like common sense to me.

Curious though, is there a general policy or procedure for what to do in the case of an incapacitated airline crewmember, or is it just up to the captain?
 
drunkenbeagle said:
is there a general policy or procedure for what to do in the case of an incapacitated airline crewmember,
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Yes


but
or is it just up to the captain?
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yes there too.

It's pretty much impossible to come up with a policy for every possible situation regarding crew incapacitation. So, while there are some general guidelines, it is generally considered up to the working crew to make the best decision regarding the specific circumstances.
 
While being a pilot certainly didn't hurt the situation, I'd imagine any FA could have been used (as long as she/he was willing, could remain calm AND be a help to the other pilot and not a hinderance.)

Even though it's entirely up to the PIC, I think there'd be questions asked if he/she decided to go solo and NOT get someone up there to help in that kind of situation.
 
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