Rules are rules, and in the case of a pilot for a Japanese airline, those rules caused him to be suspended from his job.
His offense: He let two flight attendants sit in the copilot’s seat and handle controls during an empty flight.
That’s a violation of the airline’s rules.
It’s not like the attendants were really flying the plane. The captain maintained control the entire time. An Air Central airline spokesman even suggests the pilot’s actions weren’t unsafe.
But there are those pesky rules that need to be followed.
And anyone who has watched the film Airport 1975 knows that flight attendants can fly planes!
Who can forget actress Karen Black, playing attendant Nancy Pryor, taking control of the 747 after the rest of the cockpit crew was either killed or seriously injured?
Why, she even was able to calm fellow flight attendants as they entered the cockpit, ripped apart after it was hit by a smaller plane, at the same time she was flying the plane! Talk about multi-tasking!
Apparently, though, the Air Central flight was a different situation altogether. It didn’t have a singing nun on board played by Helen Reddy, like the film did.
