I have been asked this question once but never at an airline interview. This was for a position within the company. I came up with the following.

I used to preflight the exterior of the aircraft for FO's from time to time. Our FOM says the FO will perform the walk around.

The interviewer said, "Good answer, give me another example."

I thought for a solid minute before I replied. I said occasionally when the FO had a tight commute and we had a slow cruise speed, I'd bump up the speed to buy them some time to make their flight.

The interviewer replied that that was also a good answer.

I have had a number of interviews (including three at major airlines) and passed them all. Never miss an opportunity to get a few check marks in the positive attributes column of your grade sheet.

Another piece of advice for people preparing for an interview. Consider what constitutes a conflict. A lot of interviews include a question about it. I generally talk about situations where no one is at fault and there is no personal conflict. TMAAT you had a conflict with a coworker.

I was flying with Joe and he had a duty time limit coming up, I did not. Joe wanted to try to make the MTOB time, I didn't think we could make it. We discussed it and we decided to call scheduling to see what they thought. Scheduling said they had no one available for a couple hours so they asked us to give it a go. We coordinated with the gate agent and FA's to get everyone on board quickly so we could push. We told ground we had a duty time limit and when we needed to be airborne. I think we bypassed one or two planes and made our time. I like flying with people like Joe because they lean into the operation. I do think you have to be careful not to lean in too far. I like to remind myself and others when there is a time pressure, not to rush.

 

There's a difference between "I flew a visual approach referencing this thing in the database v. I accepted a clearance to fly the Harbor Visual to blah blah blah.". Doing it because it's going to be approved soon when it's not approved is kind of a bad example to bring out. You're intentionally breaking a rule for convenience in this scenario.

The fuel one is a little better, I think. You're using PIC authority to act in the interests of safety, and those alternates are for planning purposes. So there's a discussion about which airports you could have gone to and why you chose to go to B, but that's not a bad necessarily a bad thing. Your intent is compliance and safety in this scenario.

Edit: I quoted the wrong person.

 

Yes the best rule breaking TMAAT stories are either legit use of PIC authority due to unforseen circumstances, or breaking your own personal rule/minimums in the interest of safety.

Should always be about safety, not convenience, mission accomplishment, or financial concerns. Might even have been the wrong call in hindsight as long as lessons were learned and the motive was safety.

 

I saw that movie!

 

I totally agree, at an airline, before you break a rule, there are 3-4 people at the airline you would consult with. Id say something like "Well it wasnt really a rule, since I spoke to my Chief Pilot about it but....."

 

Please don’t say anything CLOSE to this. The chief pilot, duty manager, chief bottle washer etc has ZERO say in how you execute your flight. I’ve seen this with newer Captains, when they want to patch in the duty manager to help with decisions that the company, and FAA place squarely on the PIC, yet they are hesitant to make such decisions. I’m sure if you sit down and think back on your career, there’s SOMETHING that’s not a black and white type situation that shows good decision making.