Originally Posted by
DelDah Capt
Well that's great, but it doesn't answer the question. There are lots of things that happened 20-30 years ago that are different today. 20-30 years ago people were smoking on planes, would you allow your pax to smoke if they wanted to? 20-30 years ago you were taught that if there was a hijacker on board, you should bring them up to the cockpit to discuss things. Is that how you would handle it today?
Now back to the question, your F/O wants to bring his kid up to the jumpseat in the middle of the flight. Do you let him do it and what opinion do you have of his judgment?
BTW, I am absolutely not advocating that this controller be "fired"....and before everyone starts the letter writing campaign, he hasn't been fired. Simply relieved of his duties while they investigate.
Is the question even whether this controller did something against regulations (which it seems he did IF only controllers are allowed in the tower and IF only controllers are allowed to talk to aircraft) or whether something as simple as showing your child your workplace and letting him/her talk on the radio should be elevated to such a HUGE no-no?
In my recent past, controllers were asking for pilots to come up to the tower and approach control for orientation. I've been to both - are the controllers breaking the rules by letting me in the tower? I've even had someone else besides a controller clear me for take-off! In the old job we had what was called Family Day and family and friends got to say "Roger Ball" to their family member or friend coming into to land during an FCLP period (on a separate tower freq), but does this break t he rules too?
How about applying just a tad of common sense to the situation?
This is a sad situation and along the same lines of why you can rarely even get up close to an aircraft at an airshow, more rare to actually get to see inside the cockpit, more rare to have the canopy open, and INCREDIBLY rare to actually sit in the cockpit. Of course this last statement is based on your own service's rules and regs and all the way down to your own squadron's SOP - but those good ole' days are pretty much gone too.
USMCFLYR