Originally Posted by
Margaritaville
I don't know? Really and truly that whole FA in the cockpit thing was just a knee jerk reaction to the Germanwings incident. And some foreign airlines have already moved away from it. Truth be told it's just like the TSA: more feel good security theater with little actual result. What's a flight attendant standing in the cockpit doorway going to do to stop a pilot determined to do something bad? You and I both know the answer to that.
Economics are the greatest driver to reduction in pilots. Safety will never be the determining factor. ALPA is playing a bad hand.
Lets follow through on that thought. What are the economics behind crashing a $200 million jet, settling 150 lawsuits from passengers, lost cargo, lost market cap, government fines, etc? What do the economics say about the government revoking the airworthiness certificate for an entire brand new fleet of said $200,000,000 planes? You can put a price tag on that. Boomjet isn't Boeing with an established track record and lobbyists and selling aircraft to scores of airlines around the world. They could get shutdown in a heartbeat if safety is an issue. We aren't trained to be safe out of the goodness of Scott's heart, we're trained to be safe because it's a hell of a lot cheaper than the alternative.
As far as the babysitting FA, what are they going to do? Well for one there's the deterence factor, study after study proves that it only takes the slightest of barriers to dissuade someone from committing suicide. Something as small as a lock or a 5 foot fence or a person nearby can signficantly decrease the chances of a suicide attempt. They also know what looks right, and if there are any issues they can just open the door and get help. They also have objects at their disposal to subdue a suicidal pilot. You also have another ablebodied person to assist with securing the door as the other pilot comes in. There's a reason why you're citing only one incident from a long list of pilot murder/suicides and all of them are from foreign carriers.