Read the forum code of contact
By: - 2nd February 2010 at 21:54 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Complete and utter nonsense. What next?
By: - 3rd February 2010 at 08:44 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
What are these 'sterile cockpit rules' and do the only apply to US airlines ..or are they Universal
By: - 3rd February 2010 at 10:27 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Complete and utter nonsense. What next?
The pilot hiccuped 30 mins before the crash?!
By: - 3rd February 2010 at 14:01 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
That's not so ridiculous as it seems. Text can be a good way to communicate from the secure area of the airport. It's not like pilots don't aviate, navigate, and communicate at the same time on a fairly regular basis... Now if it happened while the aircraft was moving, that might be a bigger issue.
Ryan
By: - 3rd February 2010 at 14:29 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Hmm... Whether it was a contributing factor or not, a rule is a rule so either way it shouldn't have been broken. It will be interesting to see what bearing, if any, it has on the outcome.
Paul
By: - 3rd February 2010 at 16:34 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Sterile cockpit extends from the time to drop the brake before pushback until you are above 10,000' MSL. The one exception (I'm not sure if every airline does this) is when the brake is set while on the ground the sterile cockpit rules don't apply. This is assuming a situation where a crew is sitting for a long period of time waiting for a gate or to takeoff.
The biggest issue I see with the FO in this event is the lack of professionalism regarding her inability to follow the rule of no electronic devices below 10,000'. Clearly her head wasn't in the game if she was firing off text messages on the taxi out.
By: - 4th February 2010 at 01:54 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Even if she prepared the text earlier she shouldn't have had an electronic deviced powered up in the first place. It's a few bad apples that spoil the bunch.
Posts: 12,842
By: steve rowell - 2nd February 2010 at 21:17
The co-pilot of the plane that crashed in Clarence Center last February used her cell phone in the cockpit to send two text messages prior to takeoff, possibly in violation of federal "sterile cockpit" rules that bar pilots from focusing on anything but the flight to which they are assigned.
Rebecca L. Shaw, the flight's first officer, sent those text messages after boarding the airplane in Newark, N.J., for the flight to Buffalo.
One was made at 7:58 p.m., apparently before the airplane began its ground taxi.
The second was at 9:13 p.m., five minutes before the plane took off.
A National Transportation Safety Board investigator reported the text messages in a document filed in preparation for the board's Tuesday meeting to consider its final report in the crash of Continental Connection Flight 3407, which claimed 50 lives.
Source: The Buffalo News