United flight diverted to remote island

[xrobwx71]

I understand that waiting to get on a flight is already annoying however, i wonder why they don't do an inspection prior to each and every flight. I dont see why they cant do it while they clean the plane and refuel it between flights.

Hell, this should be the very first, default checkbox on their form before flight.

[bonalste]

I understand that waiting to get on a flight is already annoying however, i wonder why they don't do an inspection prior to each and every flight. I dont see why they cant do it while they clean the plane and refuel it between flights.

Question: what would you like them to inspect? And how much would you like your ticket to cost?

[Art_X]

There's no such thing as a co-pilot. You're stuck in the 80s. The skill was in both pilots. 2 pilots. One is a captain, the other a first officer. Both are pilots. I'm not being 'sodding' pedantic. It's like having two parents, one a mother one a father, but saying that only the mother is a parent, and the father is a co-parent. It's just silly.

Here is why I take I take umbrage with what you said. It is equally as likely that the first officer was in charge of the controls and did the approach, the landing. The other pilot, the one not flying, be it the captain or first officer, would have run through the emergency checklists, carried out any required landing distance calculations, may have briefed the cabin crew and organised the emergency services on the ground, organised routing to the nearest airport. Both pilots would have been heavily involved in the decision making process for where you go and also in the diagnosis process. BOTH pilots used a lot of skill, and to focus on only one is plain wrong. And that you would naturally focus on the captain is a little insulting. I've basically had to take control from a captain before during an emergency, running the whole show by myself because the captain was totally incompetent to deal with the situation. But you'd have thanked the captain, who was awful and might've got you killed, and I'd have been ignored. Lovely.

But thanks for trying to advise me on aviation terminology. I appreciate all the help I can get...

 

In commercial aviation, the first officer is the second pilot (sometimes referred to as the "co-pilot") of an aircraft. The first officer is second-in-command of the aircraft to the captain, who is the legal commander. In the event of incapacitation of the captain, the first officer will assume command of the aircraft.

 

Control of the aircraft is normally shared equally between the first officer and the captain, with one pilot normally designated the "pilot flying" (PF) and the other the "pilot not flying" (PNF), or "pilot monitoring" (PM), for each flight. Even when the first officer is the flying pilot, however, the captain remains ultimately responsible for the aircraft, its passengers, and the crew. In typical day-to-day operations, the essential job tasks remain fairly equal.

 

So co-pilot is a correct term

[Mr. Gibs]

Hell, this should be the very first, default checkbox on their form before flight.

It is...it's called the preflight inspection / checklist. And then they do a run-up and so on.

Then you have all the required maintenance and inspections that planes go through. Now I don't know the exact hours for large commercial jets but say you owned your own little plane you have:

- 100 hour inspection - Every 100 hours of flight time the airplane has to be inspected by a mechanic if it's used for hire.

- Annual inspection - Basically every year the airplane has to be inspected by a mechanic.

- ADs - Things that need to be inspected, maintained, replaced etc every X hours / days in order for the plane to be legal to fly.

- Various other required inspections.

There is a LOT of safety related stuff/laws that goes on behind the scenes when it comes to an airplane. It's not a car where it's like "meh I don't have to take my car in every 10,000 miles"

[bonalste]

In commercial aviation, the first officer is the second pilot (sometimes referred to as the "co-pilot") of an aircraft. The first officer is second-in-command of the aircraft to the captain, who is the legal commander. In the event of incapacitation of the captain, the first officer will assume command of the aircraft.

Control of the aircraft is normally shared equally between the first officer and the captain, with one pilot normally designated the "pilot flying" (PF) and the other the "pilot not flying" (PNF), or "pilot monitoring" (PM), for each flight. Even when the first officer is the flying pilot, however, the captain remains ultimately responsible for the aircraft, its passengers, and the crew. In typical day-to-day operations, the essential job tasks remain fairly equal.

So co-pilot is a correct term

Well, co-pilot isn't the correct term. It was disbanded decades ago in use in commercial aviation due to its negative impact on multi-crew cooperation (basically, belligerent captain demanding that he is the only pilot on board and that FO should shut up, and then goes and kills everybody, I.e. Tenerife and many others). It's a dangerous word to be used in the line. There are two pilots. They both do the same job. They have different ranks. My contract says 'pilot', not 'co-pilot'.

[Yazoo]

No, they were coming in on the skills of the pilot.

The pilots name could have been Faith :P