During a United Airlines charter flight, a baseball team coach filmed himself in the captain’s seat. The aviation authority is now investigating.
The Colorado Rockies are a professional baseball team from the city of Denver in the USA. On April 10, the team flew to an away game against the Toronto Blue Jays. The Rockies used a chartered Boeing 757-300 from United Airlines.
Later, one of the team’s coaches uploaded a video on social media in which he can be seen in the left pilot’s seat of the plane in flight. “We had a lot of fun in the cockpit on our flight from Denver to Toronto,” he wrote and thanked the captain and co-pilot “who made this great experience possible for me.”
FAA investigates, pilots removed from service
The video, which was later deleted, showed, as at least one other person entered the cockpit who was not part of the crew. The problem: All of this is strictly forbidden. “We are deeply disturbed by what we see in this video, which appears to show an unauthorized person in the cockpit at cruising altitude with the autopilot engaged,” a United spokesman told the Denver Post newspaper.
United informed the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which is now investigating the incident. The pilots were taken off duty while the investigation took place. The incident is particularly inconvenient for the airline, as the FAA is already keeping a close eye on the airline after a series of incidents.
Authorities have checked United anyway
“Over the next few weeks, we will see an increased presence of the FAA in our operations as it begins to review some of our workflows, manuals and facilities,” it said in a letter to United employees in March. The review means “an even closer look at several areas of our operations to ensure we are doing everything we can to promote and drive safety compliance.”
2024-04-24 04:30:16
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