The FAA has issued a new rule that will require a secondary barrier on the flight deck of some new commercial airplanes. Designed to “protect flight decks from intrusion when the flight deck door is open,” the rule (PDF) affects operators conducting Part 121 passenger-carrying operations. It applies specifically to transport category airplanes manufactured two years or more after the rule’s effective date, which will be determined based on when it is officially published in the Federal Register.
Who remembers the pre 911 days when a passenger could ask the flight attendant if they could visit the flight deck once above 10,000’ and almost always get permission?
I recall many times sitting awestruck in a jump seat or huddled elsewhere in the cockpit enjoying the goings on.
Once I flew from Miami to JFK at night on a deadhead flight. I was injured while diving in the Keys (bit by a Morey of all things) and was miserable and needed to go home ASAP. The airline put me on the deadhead. I was the only passenger. I spent the whole flight above 10,000’ up front. I was a pre-student pilot at that time.
I would tell the FA that I was a pilot/physician. Not sure if that helped but would provide an inkling of an idea I would be able to behave and appreciate the privilege.
Unfortunately there are a lot of things that went away after 9/11 with aviation. There are others that went away having nothing to do with 9/11 (local sightseeing rides). I’ll bet these “things” that have gone away is a big reason less and less young people are wanting to get into aviation. How many persons actually are able to just go to the airport to watch planes takeoff and land. I know my home airport did away with the observation decks years ago in the name of security. To be honest with all of the cockpit barriers now in place and this new requirement coming, I’m surprised the pilot uniform hasn’t disappeared as well, after all how many times do passengers actually see the cockpit crew anymore during or after the flight.
As a kid I got to see the business end of the plane several times as my Dad was a gate agent for TWA and he knew all the crews out of PHL.
But this is so stupid. 22 years ago the first two aircraft were successfully hijacked and used to attack targets on the ground. The third aircraft was taken down by the people on the plane because they knew how it was going to end. It hasn’t happened since.
If you think about it, this does nothing to protect the passengers on the plane. If anything it means a fighter pilot won’t have to live with the memory of shooting down a civilian airliner. Just allow the pilots to be armed again.
When we were kids we would ride our bikes to EWR (very hazardous, no reasonable access other than highways and crowded intersections; God bless a kid on a Sting-Ray) and go into the terminal to watch the planes. There was an observation area, I’ doubt it’s still there.
1961; regularly was invited aboard as a visitor. One captain of a Caravelle plopped me down in the observer’s seat, put an oxygen mask on my face and said, “Here’s how we start the engines and started them up! C’mon along for the ride, we’ll arrange to fly you back home (KORD)” I regret that I had to tell him that I couldn’t because I was waiting for my dad’s flight to arrive and he’d kill me knowing that I parked his car in the lot and wasn’t there to pick him up or even to tell him where it was.
This second door covers the times when the crew has to leave the cockpit in flight to, say, use the bathroom. Current procedure is for a flight attendant to position a drink cart or other obstacle in the aisle before the cockpit door is opened. The idea is to slow down a passenger trying to rush the cockpit at that moment.
The most dangerous element in aircraft now is already sitting in the left front seat. Some way to “take over” the flight from the ground would be more valuable.
“The FAA estimates that the purchase and installation of a secondary barrier will run $35,000.”
Not insignificant. What has driven the need for one more expensive change? Since all the cockpit security has been in place how many cockpit incursions have there been? ANY??
As someone who does network security for a living. Please, for the love of all that’s good, do not do this. We simply do not know how to make this secure. Anyone who tells you otherwise is lying.
This “logic” is why government spending and everything impacted by government interaction is so ridiculously expensive. I’d like to see us levying requirements as if the money were coming out of our own pockets. Because it is.
It’s sobering to think that new college students (and even 19-year-olds) today do not remember this event: to them, it is something they learned about in history class and from their parents. By the time this rule change is implemented, many FOs going through those double doors will not remember the events that gave rise to it.
Agree or disagree with the change, but take note: THAT is how quickly the FAA moves - in response to the biggest perceived crisis in decades. Meanwhile, GA is still stuck with regulations drafted in the 1940s and an airplane fleet from the 1960s. GA needs to be freed from the FAA, somehow - and soon - so the FAA can focus on catching up with history and serving the needs of airline passengers, and GA can modernize at last.
