Originally Posted by
cocknbull
The FOM does not state "do not do it." It states that there is "no need to." There is a difference. Although the person who writes the FOM does not find it necessary there are good reasons to do so. Recently I received a "stay at gate for performance" pre push message. After we finally received our WDR I noticed a jumpsseater in the numbers. I was unaware we had one. I called the flight attendant up and she tracked him down. When he came up to the cockpit he apologized and said the agent told him to take seat 15B and there was no need to check in with me. The agent did so but also issued him the 1P ticket. I explained to him the for performance reasons he would have to sit in the jumpseat. The FOM assumes everyone knows what they are doing. They do not. It also assumes that an offline jumps eater knows the difference between having a seat in the back with a 1P ticket and actually having a seat in the back. Most do not. Recently there has been many medical events involving pilots at the controls. It is nice to know where extras are just in case. Nothing like making a PA "is there a pilot on board?"
I saw something similar to this. A Delta captain getting a ride home on a recent flight of mine was issued a 1P but at the last minute the gate agent told him there was an open seat in back and he should just take it. He did not check in up front, and when we got the WDR it had a JS listed. Captain called OPS to get JS removed from the WDR, OPS said unable because there is a JS listed and a 1P issued. The captain explained there is physically nobody in the JS, change the numbers. OPS said unable because the flight is closed out, if he was given a seat in back then we need to move him up front into the JS. We're now bordering on ludicrous. About to cross 4/22 at LGA for a 13 departure, we have no numbers loaded, haven't done the taxi checklist, there's a mystery JSer we don't know about, and we're supposed to pull this plane over, open the door, and make a pilot come sit up front? After several conversations with the FAs and OPS we finally figured out that yes, there was a DAL pilot who was given a 1P and he's sitting in 12a. Reason finally prevailed and the captain just went with the WDR that listed the JS and left him in the back. Probably the worst thing was the captain was fuming mad over this. It wasn't quite to the level of Ron Mullis and Rocket Surgeons but he was definitely plssed off. I didn't think he'd do anything dangerous so I kept quiet, but if something nonrelated were to happen the amount of angry commentary in the sterile area would've definitely made any report from the NTSB.
Now, had the JSer just stopped up and said hi, I have 1P but the agent gave me a seat in back most of the anger and confusion could have been avoided. We still would've had the WDR issue, but at least the captain would've had all the information and he wouldn't have had all that commentary on the tapes.
I guess my takeaway is if given a 1P and then subsequently told to take a seat in back, check in. If I have a ticket with an actual seat number on it, I'll say hi if they're at the door or in the jetway but I stay out of the way if they're up front getting ready for the flight.