Originally Posted by
CAL EWR
Somewhere along the line some Continental Captains have become conditioned to believe their authority stops at the cockpit door. Gentlemen, I am here to tell you that is NOT the case.
The Chief Pilot also made it clear to the Inflight supervisor that if a Flight Attendant ever stuck her hand in his face she would be immediately removed from the trip. She agreed and said that she would have a talk with her.
When the Inflight Supervisor left, the Chief Pilot made it clear to us that it is TIME all of our Captains start acting like Captains and taking our profession back.
Gentlemen, the aircraft is ours, from the cockpit to the cabin, and it includes the galley and jumpseats.
Even under the Frank Lorenzo regime a Captain’s authority was intact. Somehow, many of the current cadre of Captains has given up, feeling indifferent and only wanting to be concerned with things related to flying.
When compared to the issue of flight safety, we have done very well over the years insuring that First Officers have both the tools and the support to assertively assist a Captain. I am convinced that if I were to disconnect the autopilot and intentionally fly toward high terrain or a level 5 thunderstorm, even the weakest of our F.O.s would at least speak up.
Yet I am not so sure that we have reached the same level of empowerment when it comes to the issues of Flight deck authority and contract compliance. We occasionally have Captains allowing blatant violations of hard fought for contractual provisions and the above types of discounting of Captain's authority.
We need to work to further foster an environment where our F.O.s are sufficiently supported in the instance that they feel they need to assertively redirect Captains who go down the one way dead end street of allowing contractual violations and erosions of authority to continue.