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What was your most unusual Jumpseat experience?

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What was your most unusual Jumpseat experience?

Old 03-19-2006, 10:37 PM
  #1  
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Question What was your most unusual Jumpseat experience?

What was your must unusual Jumpseat experience?

Here's mine:

I was taking a Jumpseat Flight from OAK to LAS. This trip would allow me to attend and participate in a political seminar for pro-gun activists who were engaged in grassroots political activities throughout the nation.

After making my way to the flight deck and introducing myself to the Captain and First Officer, the Captain noticed an "I'm the NRA" button on my jacket lapel. He inquired as to what that meant, and announced that he was a card-carrying member of Handgun Control, Inc.

After explaining what was going to take place at the grassroots political seminar, the First Officer said "Cool! I live in Las Vegas and own three machine guns!". The Captain nearly died right there on the spot. He looked at his First Officer and said, "John... I've flown with you before, but never knew that you held such extreme views with regards to the ownership of firearms." And the debate was on!

I stepped back from the door just a bit as the Captain and his First Officer began to hurl statistics back and forth at each other. They were dissecting the U.S. Constitution, Bill of Rights, and arguing over the meaning of various Founding Father quotations. It was very heated.

The Captain told me to sit down and buckle up while he and the First Officer began their pre-departure preparations. There was no more discussion relating to firearms or gun-control -- for the moment.

As we left 10,000 feet, the Captain suddenly turned to the First Officer and started the gun control debate again. These two guys went at each other all the way across the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range -- and the Captain was losing the argument!

With a bright red face and his hands griped tightly around the yoke, the Captain called for an end to the discussion. "This is my aircraft... I'm in charge... I'm responsible for the safe operation of this aircraft and the security of the passengers. We will no longer discuss this issue!"

With the exception of communication that was vital for the operation of the aircraft, the remainder of the flight was flown in silence.

Once at the gate in LAS, the Captain suggested that I never take a Jumpseat flight while wearing controversial political buttons. The First Officer just winked and gave me the "thumbs-up" sign.

I crawled off of the flight deck as quickly as possible!

MEM_ATC
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Old 03-20-2006, 04:27 AM
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Nice story! Here's one of my more memorable jumpseat experiences...

Flying out of ORD, trying to make a flight home and running late... Go running up to the gate (USAirways) just as the agent is about to close the door. She sees me coming and yells, "Hurry up! They're getting ready to pull the jetbridge! Don't worry about the form- just tell me your name- I'll take care of it..."

So I run down to the plane, but it's too late. The bridge is pulled back and the door is closed. The captain sees me- but I shrug my shoulders at him and wave "goodbye." He motions at me to wait a second, then I see movement in the cockpit. A few seconds later, the door opens and the lead FA yells- "The captain says 'If you can make it on board, you can have a seat in first class!'"

I tossed my bags over the gap (about 4 feet), stepped back and much to the surprise of the people in row 1 tumbled into the cabin.
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Old 03-20-2006, 09:43 AM
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OMG!! Thats hillarious!! ROFLMAO
 
Old 03-20-2006, 10:55 AM
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Flying IAD-SFO non-rev on United. My brother had a ticket (He was on business). An earlier flight had cancelled, and this 777 that I thought was open was now packed. The gate agents were able to accomedate all the revenue passengers. With one seat left (First class on a 3 class 777), a revenue passenger from a later flight showed up. She demanded that she be placed on this flight, obviously to the dismay of the crew at the gate. She kept on demanding, despite the agents response that she could not be put in first because she paid for a coach ticket. The lady was really worked up.

I suddenly realized that I had not given my brother my car keys to drive home from SFO. I went up to the counter and politely asked the agent if I could get these keys to my brother. I told her my last name was Evans.
Agent 1: "Evans...Evans, he's a passenger, he's already on."
Agent 2: "No, this is Evans, he's number one on the standby list."
Agent 1: "Oh, thank god. I'm putting him on. I'm not giving that ***** a first class seat.

And so I went to my seat, put my stuff away, and we took off. Right after, I reclined my seat into the full lay flat bed, ate the meal, and slept the next 5 hours home. Best sleep I had gotten in a long time.

So be nice to the gate agents. They have the authority as to who gets on!
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Old 03-20-2006, 11:58 AM
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Years ago I needed to get to Miami. I was in LAX and for some reason, I don't remember, I decided it would be better to fly to SFO to get to MIA on Eastern. I was on the South side of LAX so I started to make my way to the North side to get on PSA. I got about as far as the "space ship looking" terminal in the center of the airport when I changed my mind. While I was killing time in LAX to take the flight to MIA I learned that the same PSA flight I was going to j-seat on had crashed. We later learned the flight crew had been shot by a disgruntled former PSA employee. I was pretty freaked out to think I could have been on the same jet.

Sometimes I wonder if I could have stopped the shooter. Maybe if I had been up front he would have been rattled and been delayed enough for the crew to "float" him or fight him off. I don't know. It has always bugged me.
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Old 03-20-2006, 12:13 PM
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About 10 years ago I was in ORD trying to get on a UA DC10 to SEA. The jumpseat was occupied, according to the gate agent, but this guy see's me in uniform and approaches me. Says he's a UA pilot and has the jumpseat but that if I'll reimburse him for it, he'll take a pass and ride in the back. I think that's cool, so I do it.

Get on the plane and introduce myself to the crew. I mentioned that I was lucky to get on and this guy took a pass for me. The F/E slowly turns around and asks me if the guy wanted money to take the pass. I told the crew the whole story and the crap hit the fan.

Turns out you can't give someone money to take a pass. Turns out the guy was a scab and this crew knew him....they didn't like him, either.

After the flight as the scab guy gets off the plane the Capt and him get into in verbally big time. Capt says he's gonna turn the scab in to the company. Thought it might come to blows. A couple minutes later, I'm trying to look small and walked off the plane. Sure enough, the scab guy is waiting for ME at the top of the jetway and proceeds to chew me out. "I'm never taking another UPS jumpseater as long as I live", he says. I just walked away.
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Old 03-20-2006, 01:04 PM
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When I was an engineer on the 747-100, we left Cologne to fly to Newark with a full load of jumpseaters. Once we reached top of climb, the captain said he was ready for his meal. I went back, and guess where this meal was? Being eaten by a jumpseating mechanic, the same guy who later ended up tattling to management on crews landing in his gateway for "bad " landings and such (his name was Brown-something). What a piece of work he was.
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Old 03-20-2006, 03:27 PM
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Red face BWIA flightdeck ride

You guys are hilarious, except Mike734 there whose story is truly terrifying... I'm not in y'alls class but hope this kinda qualifies as an antique story. Way back in the 60s before various regs banished all noncrew inflight, I was a total wide-eyed, model-building 100% airplane nut of 8. On a short BWIA leg in a Vickers Viscount between Piarco POS Trinidad and Grenada (the old cliffside non-Cuban airport at Pearls) our nice all-Brit crew gave the kid a chance to see some real air gods at work. I stood there awed and close to heaven as we levelled for cruise, but the last thing I expected was to see my steely-eyed heroes completely cover the panel and half the windows with their unfolded morning Trinidad Guardian, yawn, pull their feet back, sip coffee and discuss only the local cricket scores until it was time for descent...
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Old 03-20-2006, 06:59 PM
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Crashman,

Originally Posted by Crashman
You guys are hilarious, except Mike734 there whose story is truly terrifying... I'm not in y'alls class but hope this kinda qualifies as an antique story...
JT... is that you? From Austin, Texas? We've heard stories about you out here in Memphis, Tennessee!

MEM_ATC

PS: Nice weapon. Is that a .50?
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Old 03-20-2006, 09:05 PM
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Talking almost...

Originally Posted by MEM_ATC
Crashman,
JT... is that you? From Austin, Texas? We've heard stories about you out here in Memphis, Tennessee! MEM_ATC

PS: Nice weapon. Is that a .50?
Wish I was Mem, but I'm just an amateur. You're right on the rest though, I got my ticket at AUS old Rob't Mueller - Ragsdale. Possibly called you up many times reporting over Reagan Stadium. Guess the "y'all" gave me away. And that is indeed a sweet Barrett .50. Here's another little present your great story seems to have pulled out of my files. This is quite a website, nice to be where the people know what they're talking about!
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