Jackarse Jumpseaters

Bog

Bog

New Member
Time to vent. Today a jumpseater from another carrier boarded my aircraft. He asked the FA where I was, she said I was "out," and he proceed to go take his seat. She never told him that he didn't have to check with me. She never told him that he could simply take his seat. He simply elected to do so on his own.

My FO happened to mention something about a jumpseater to me while we were taxiing out. Fuming, I called our Ops and got the guy's name. Well, wouldn't ya know, as he's getting off the plane in ORD he starts digging in his pocket. He hands me the pass and says "Do you need this?"

I said "Yeah, about an hour-and-a-half ago."

He said "Oh, sorry, the FA said you weren't around."

I said "Yeup. But you know that you're required to check in with me."

He stared, then muttered a quick thanks, and walked off the airplane. He will NEVER ride on my airplane again for as long as I live. Never. Ever.

See, if he was a newbie at another regional, I wouldn't sweat it. We've all been new at jumpseating, made the mistake of not checking in, and perhaps got away without a scolding. But this guy was NOT a regional pilot. Nope, he's an FO for a mainline carrier who hasn't hired in about 6 years, so he certainly knows the code of conduct for jumpseating. It's this passive "Oh, it's just an RJ, I don't have to ask" bullsh!!!t that really starts my day off wrong.

So, to end my venting, please note that when you all make it to the airlines, always always always always check with the CA or FO before you take your seat in the back. Always. Always. Always.

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The jumpseat is a courtesy extended by the captain.

It kind of works like this, you ask the captain permission to ride the jumpseat by introducing yourself, showing the proper credentials, and asking permission to ride the jumpseat. If everything checks out, he'll grant permission and offer a seat in the cabin after you introduce yourself to the lead flight attendant if there is one available.

The FOM (flight operations manual) at my employer requires that all jumpseaters identify themselves to the captain, show proper credentials and the captain must approve. I think that's fairly industry standard.

There have been cases of people gaining access to the jumpseat that aren't qualified (ie: A CFI with a shiney pair of epaulets that works at a large academy at Sanford, claiming tobe a crewmember for the regional with their namesake) or carriers that aren't on the approved reciprocal jumpseat list. The captain needs to check that his company ID is not expired and authentic, that he's a qualified crewmember (checking license and medical) and introduce himself.

It's also a security risk on a few different levels but in fear of getting "Googled" when the search engine bots make their rounds evening, I'll just leave it at that.
 
I completely agree with you, when I worked at AS we had a Horizon FO (Dash 8) on the list for the jumpseat to Seattle and since BUR gets mostly MD 80s from AS and the CA has to come down and we give him the paper work so I asked the Horizon FO to wait in the waiting area untill the CA is done with his paperwork and the food run that they usually did and I'll go ahead introduce him to the CA but since he taught he is the God's gift on hearth he just proceeded to the aircraft and was getting comfortable on the MD 80's jumpseat that the Captain arrived to the waiting area with the food and I explained him the situation and since he knew me and we would talk a lot when he would come to BUR, he went on the plane and denied the horizon pilot to board the aircraft so he had to stay with us at BUR and we re routed him from PDX on a Horizon flight.
That's what you get when you are not patient, sad but he deserved it.
 
That is quite possibly the longest sentence I've ever seen in my life. You're going to drive the spelling and grammar nazi's batty if you keep up like that! :)
 
Aero_Engineer said:
I completely agree with you, when I worked at AS we had a Horizon FO (Dash 8) on the list for the jumpseat to Seattle and since BUR gets mostly MD 80s from AS and the CA has to come down and we give him the paper work so I asked the Horizon FO to wait in the waiting area untill the CA is done with his paperwork and the food run that they usually did and I'll go ahead introduce him to the CA but since he taught he is the God's gift on hearth he just proceeded to the aircraft and was getting comfortable on the MD 80's jumpseat that the Captain arrived to the waiting area with the food and I explained him the situation and since he knew me and we would talk a lot when he would come to BUR, he went on the plane and denied the horizon pilot to board the aircraft so he had to stay with us at BUR and we re routed him from PDX on a Horizon flight.
That's what you get when you are not patient, sad but he deserved it.
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Wow. I almost ran out of breath reading that sentegraph, what with no pauses and all. :)
 
We had a mainline FFDO yesterday walk out late and just stroll his ass behind the wing to the baggage loader, pass off his carryon, then walk up the steps. We didn't know he was a crewmember, and my captain let him have it. Then he tells us he's with XXXXXX, thinking it's no big deal. That only pissed us off even more. He's lucky we even let him continue. Every crewmember at every airline knows better than to walk behind the wing. Hell, I don't do it when I'm in uniform jumping on my own airline!
 
For the record. Horizon has had the policy that if you are riding in the back, you aren't to address the cockpit crew until after the flight. Says so on the back of the jumpseat form. I usually give my pass to the F/A when I get on the plane and if she gives it back without letting me into the cockpit. I just go take my assigned seat. If she step aside and allows me up front, I'll go talk to the crew. Either way it's played, the pilots could seem to care less.

As an aside, we have been told per company policy that a UPS Capt cannot bump a UPS jumpseater on company business. No need to ask for a ride, it's UPS's jumpseat, not the Capts. Union meetings with the FAA this week but so far the FAA has backed the company on this.
 
wheelsup said:
Wow. I almost ran out of breath reading that sentegraph, what with no pauses and all. :)
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This is an aviation forum not an English literature or composition one you can calm down!! making a mistake after all that typing can easily be ignored.
 
DE727UPS said:
No need to ask for a ride, it's UPS's jumpseat, not the Capts.
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This would seem to apply even moreso when the seat the rider will fill is in the back, not in the cockpit. Unless the dude is riding the cockpit jumpseat, they're just another nonrev, IMHO--and thus the gate agent's problem. What this really amounts to is the dude not paying proper homage to Bog--and that's what he's pissed about.

Anyway, seems like a silly thing to get one's nose out-of-joint over. Certainly not worthy of "He will NEVER ride on my airplane again for as long as I live. Never. Ever." At least, not unless you're 100% sure you'll never, ever find yourself sitting across an interview from him

And why aren't the dude's credentials being checked at the gate? Talk about a security breach!
 
Aero_Engineer said:
This is an aviation forum not an English literature or composition one you can calm down!!
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You're right, my post was not aviation related. I almost died of hypoxia by reading the 140 words between the two commas. :)

Relax, I'm just joking around. It's all good, yo. Atleast you didn't use "omg" and "like", etc. etc. :).
 
If I had a dollar for every grammar error I had on the website, I'd be drunk on a yacht someplace in the Med!
 
DE727UPS said:
it's UPS's jumpseat, not the Capts.
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I don't work for the airlines, nor do I ever intend to, but this is precisely what I was thinking when reading BOG's rant. I just felt that yes, the captain is in charge of the aircraft and it's safety, but it isn't his aircraft.
 
aloft said:
This would seem to apply even moreso when the seat the rider will fill is in the back, not in the cockpit. Unless the dude is riding the cockpit jumpseat, they're just another nonrev, IMHO--and thus the gate agent's problem. What this really amounts to is the dude not paying proper homage to Bog--and that's what he's pissed about.

Anyway, seems like a silly thing to get one's nose out-of-joint over. Certainly not worthy of "He will NEVER ride on my airplane again for as long as I live. Never. Ever." At least, not unless you're 100% sure you'll never, ever find yourself sitting across an interview from him

And why aren't the dude's credentials being checked at the gate? Talk about a security breach!
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It's not about "paying homage" it's about the rules. See if you say the same thing when it's YOUR name on the manifest/release.

One jackarse can ruin it for everyone. We lost jumpseat priviliges with Southwest for several years because of one idiot. We jsut recently got the reciprocal back last month. This guy is lucky Bog doesn't make it an issue with his airline ... banning one guy from flying is certainly better than screwing the whole company. And yes it could very easily happen.
 
iowapilot said:
I don't work for the airlines, nor do I ever intend to, but this is precisely what I was thinking when reading BOG's rant. I just felt that yes, the captain is in charge of the aircraft and it's safety, but it isn't his aircraft.
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Per the FAA the captain has ULTIMATE authority to allow/disallow boarding on any aircraft he/she is in command of. When the captain's name goes on that release/manifest it IS his/her airplane until the termination of the flight.
 
I just want to know how the hell he got out there in the first place then. Maybe if it is YOUR aircraft the company would call down and ask if it is okay with YOU if they send someone out to jumpseat? Just makes no sense to me, and like I said I don't work for an airline so I really don't know how it should work, just what I think does or doesn't make sense to me.
 
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