Airline security?? Look what I found in a magazine article.

Parents magazine ^ | 05/14/2016 | Unknown

[Yaelle]

Not sure the URL is correct - getting this from a print source so here's a photo. No byline is given for the article, on traveling with children.

But really?? Cockpits are open for kids to chat with pilots??? Was this written in the 1980s? If this is true, they might as well stop scanning and checking us before boarding.

[Yaelle]

I hope this is just a stupid writer making things up. Otherwise this would be quite negligent on the part of airlines opening the cockpit doors to little kids like on Airplane.

"My name is Roger Murdock, kid."

"Ever seen a grown man naked?"

I'd like to hope Muhammed wouldn't be allowed to ask if little Clockmed could see the cool inner workings of the airliner.

[Yaelle]

Any FReeper pilots or airline officials to say whether this is BS?

[ProtectOurFreedom]

This was common practice up until maybe 25 or 30 years ago.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

I just noticed they mention the kid watching a movie on “his own device,” so this can’t be more than 5 or 10 years old.

[Yaelle]

This is in the current issue of Parents magazine - June 2016!

[WhatNot]

Come now, what self respecting muzzle head would use children to harm people.

Oh wait nevermind

[Yaelle]

But what a stupid policy in 2016! It can’t still exist.

Elsewhere in the issue they were “fighting” to make federal law against selling crib bumpers (decorative panels for the bottom of crib bars) because there have been some deaths. Gee, what could happen if the cockpit doors were being opened each time Lila and Brendan wanted to see a pilot at work??

[exDemMom]

When I went to Europe as an exchange student in the 1970s, I went on a charter flight. The pilots invited each student up to visit the cockpit.

Of course, that situation was probably atypical, since it was a charter plane and the passengers were all between 14 and 18. The crew told us we were great passengers, better behaved than many adult passengers.

[Pontiac]

Last month my former boss posted pictures of himself and his kids in the cockpit of the airliner they were taking to Florida for vacation.

I suppose it would be safe as long as the plane is on the ground at the gate before engines are started.

[mountainlion]

The writer got his 15 minutes of fame. This is not true of course.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Wow...sounds like they “repurposed” a 1980 article and somebody forgot to fix that section. How weird.

[smokingfrog]

Yep. Those days of innocence before 9/11.

[Reeses]

Parents should choose carefully what their children are exposed to. If a child is so impressed they have to become an airline pilot they are doomed to a life competing with automation and cheap third worlders. Seeing a rap concert backstage might really be the better choice.

[smokingfrog]

http://www.foxnews.com/travel/2013/07/02/cockpit-confidential-insider-secrets-and-advice-from-airline-pilot.html

[RushIsMyTeddyBear]

Nope. My kid got a tour just a couple of years ago. Before takeoff. Invited by the captain.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

what self respecting muzzle head

OBJECTION! The question assumes a fact not in evidence.

[Wilhelm Tell]

I remember one flight I was on back in the early 90s. I think the pilot and co-pilot kept their cabin door open the whole flight. I was seated kind of near the front and from time to time I looked up from my book or magazine and watched the flight crew as they worked. It was kind of fun seeing what I could of them working. Of course nowadays there is the all too real fear of an “ordinary” crazy person or a terrorist. Different times.

[EasySt]

I have pictures from last year of my granddaughter in the cockpit being shown how to work the radio and PA systems by the pilots both on our trip to, and from Hawaii. One of them let her wear his hat and sit in the left seat. She will be four this summer.

Both cockpit visits happened on the ground, engines off, before, or after the (United Air Lines ) flights.

911 showed us what to do when the SHTF in a jetliner.

You all need to chill.

[ALPAPilot]

We have kids on the flight deck frequently, but only prior to departure or after the plane blocks in. Once the flight deck door is closed prior to the before push-back checklist, only crew members are allowed. Even prior to 9/11 it was a violation of the FAR to have non-crewmembers on the flight deck in flight.

[r_barton]

On a 1994 Russian Aeroflot flight from Moscow to Hong Kong, the pilots own kids were allowed to sit at the controls during the flight. They apparently messed with the controls and crashed the airliner, killing all 75 people on board.

From Wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeroflot_Flight_593

“Aeroflot Flight 593 was a Moscow–Hong Kong passenger service operated by Aeroflot – Russian International Airlines, flown with an Airbus A310-300, that crashed into a hillside of the Kuznetsk Alatau mountain range, Kemerovo Oblast, Russia, on 23 March 1994.[1][2] All 63 passengers and 12 crew members perished in the accident.

No evidence of technical malfunction was found.[3] Cockpit voice and flight data recorders revealed the presence of the pilot’s 12-year-old daughter and 16-year-old son on the flight deck.[4][5][6] One of the children had unknowingly disabled the A310 autopilot’s control of the aircraft’s ailerons while seated at the controls. The aircraft had then rolled into a steep bank and near-vertical dive from which the pilots were unable to regain control.”