Cockpit Security for International Carriers

jhugz

jhugz

Well-Known Member
I’ve been bopping around Brazil the past couple of weeks on vacation and the other day I was on a Brazilian LCC and their cockpit security was giving me anxiety. I’m not going to go into all the SSI procedures as this is obviously not the place to discuss those, but numerous US norms were not followed and they made access to the flight deck pretty enticing if you were a shady individual. Is this pretty common outside of the US and Europe?
 
When I did a desk job for LH 14 (ooph) years ago, me and the Mrs were able to ride in the FD and FA jumpseats. Also on Swiss. The europeans have gone back to their pre-Germanwings policy of just exiting the FD for lav breaks (no FA needed to come in). Which I think is very unfortunate. We learned a hard lesson from the tragedy of 9/11, im glad we are stricter here.
 
I mean in most of the world, any random airline employee can ask to ride jumpseat on a ZED as long as the flight isn't to/from the US or a country that bans it. I was invited to ride in the jumpseat for a domestic flight in the Philippines and I'm not even an airline employee. It just depends, not every flight is a 9/11 waiting to happen so I think it's pretty cool. Mess around and get dropped with a fire axe, I'm sure they'd not hesitate to beat you to death if need be. As they should. You do go thru way more security in some countries than the US so they know you have no weapons. Sam Chui is in cockpits as a regular paying pax all the time.

To add, like the post above says, even Lufthansa and Swiss were allowing this until German Wings, but even on them you can still get permission I think in advance possibly. Just depends on the country.
 
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It’s becoming eye wash here in the US as well because of laziness, convenience and there’s a growing number of oldsters who have checked-out and newer pilots who think of 9/11 the way my generation saw Pearl Harbor.

It a commonly debriefed item during line checks.
 
ChasenSFO said:
I mean in most of the world, any random airline employee can ask to ride jumpseat on a ZED as long as the flight isn't to/from the US or a country that bans it. I was invited to ride in the jumpseat for a domestic flight in the Philippines and I'm not even an airline employee. It just depends, not every flight is a 9/11 waiting to happen so I think it's pretty cool. Mess around and get dropped with a fire axe, I'm sure they'd not hesitate to beat you to death if need be. As they should. You do go thru way more security in some countries than the US so they know you have no weapons. Sam Chui is in cockpits as a regular paying pax all the time.

To add, like the post above says, even Lufthansa and Swiss were allowing this until German Wings, but even on them you can still get permission I think in advance possibly. Just depends on the country.
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I remember being in vacation to Australia on their airline, and one of the FAs saw a carry on of mine that had an A-10 patch on it and made some smalltalk about ut. She told the captain I was onboard at some point, and about an hour out, the FA tells me that the Capt, an old school A-4 Skyhawk pilot, has invited me upstairs to the cockpit to ride along with the landing if I liked. Obviously not to turn down such a courteous invite, I did just that, heading upstairs and joining the gracious flight crew.
 
derg said:
It’s becoming eye wash here in the US as well because of laziness, convenience and there’s a growing number of oldsters who have checked-out and newer pilots who think of 9/11 the way my generation saw Pearl Harbor.

It a commonly debriefed item during line checks.
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9/11 may as well be WWII to a number of kids in aviation these days. Kind of sad to see.
 
I feel like between 9-11 and some other suicide related incidents there are some best practices OPSPECs in place, can’t imagine why that information isn’t readily available to them and more importantly why they aren’t practicing it. You’d think ICAO would be over this.
 
jhugz said:
I feel like between 9-11 and some other suicide related incidents there are some best practices OPSPECs in place, can’t imagine why that information isn’t readily available to them and more importantly why they aren’t practicing it. You’d think ICAO would be over this.
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We’ve very much created a tranche of self-ascribed “Neil Armstrongs” recreating the wheel that’s already been created and demanding likes, shares, subscribes. :)

I still have to brief entries and exits because people can’t adhere to simple instructions built on best practices so we’re in a “Back to Basics” line check blitz this winter. Yayyy.
 
MikeD said:
I remember being in vacation to Australia on their airline, and one of the FAs saw a carry on of mine that had an A-10 patch on it and made some smalltalk about ut. She told the captain I was onboard at some point, and about an hour out, the FA tells me that the Capt, an old school A-4 Skyhawk pilot, has invited me upstairs to the cockpit to ride along with the landing if I liked. Obviously not to turn down such a courteous invite, I did just that, heading upstairs and joining the gracious flight crew.
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That airline's captains have upgraded people to business class on 747 upper decks multiple times just because I asked them to say hello to someone on their taxi out. Very very cool airline.
 
ChasenSFO said:
That airline's captains have upgraded people to business class on 747 upper decks multiple times just because I asked them to say hello to someone on their taxi out. Very very cool airline.
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Yeah I’m wondering if they don’t let anyone up front after the little Thai off-roading incident with the skippers Mrs sitting on the FD

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MikeD said:
9/11 may as well be WWII to a number of kids in aviation these days. Kind of sad to see.
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I was born just a few weeks after the 10 year anniversary of Linebacker II. While I have always been interested in the stories and history of that war, it (and the war) couldn't have felt like more of a distant and different time to me.
 
///AMG said:
I was born just a few weeks after the 10 year anniversary of Linebacker II. While I have always been interested in the stories and history of that war, it (and the war) couldn't have felt like more of a distant and different time to me.
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[moved my thread creep inducing off-topic musings to the Random Thoughts thread in the Lav]
 
derg said:
It popped up in my lexicon this month because I literally just did office work all month and I learned that, in fact, “I ain’t that guy”
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Once flew with a self-described "who's-who" of the 4th floor and was immediately reminded of why simple line flying is the best.
 
bike21 said:
Once flew with a self-described "who's-who" of the 4th floor and was immediately reminded of why simple line flying is the best.
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That’s a strange place. I generally just hang out in “Edinburgh” if I’m up there for anything.
 
The euro types think we're nuts with the "two person rule" for the flight deck. You'd think they'd be more uptight about it after Germanwings.
 
derg said:
It’s becoming eye wash here in the US as well because of laziness, convenience and there’s a growing number of oldsters who have checked-out and newer pilots who think of 9/11 the way my generation saw Pearl Harbor.

It a commonly debriefed item during line checks.
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The lack of knowledge on use of the cage makes me cringe. A lot. Also, please don’t put my meal in the lav. Thanks.
 
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