Colorado Rockies Hitting Coach In Pilot Seat

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Garavar

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Garavar
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Rocky flight: FAA probes MLB coach's video post

In a since-deleted social media post, Rockies hitting coach Hensley Meulens is seen sitting in a pilot's seat during the team's chartered flight to Toronto. The FAA and United Airlines are investigating the situation.
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United Airlines in Trouble. Someone is getting fired. Reminds me of Aeroflot 593. Except this person didn't accidentally disengage the autopilot and kill everyone.
 
Garavar said:
www.espn.com

Rocky flight: FAA probes MLB coach's video post

In a since-deleted social media post, Rockies hitting coach Hensley Meulens is seen sitting in a pilot's seat during the team's chartered flight to Toronto. The FAA and United Airlines are investigating the situation.
www.espn.com www.espn.com

United Airlines in Trouble. Someone is getting fired. Reminds me of Aeroflot 593. Except this person didn't accidentally disengage the autopilot and kill everyone.
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Are they technically allowed to be in the cockpit since it’s a charter?
 
The only thing missing was noting that this happened on a Boeing product. (I have no idea if it did or didn't)
 
dans2992 said:
Are they technically allowed to be in the cockpit since it’s a charter?
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I don’t see anything in 121.547 and 121.587 that would authorize what occurred. Even if allowed by the FARs, UAL has stated that this violated company policy.
 
It's not easy to get fired, but man this certainly seems like a good way to go about it. What the hell were they thinking???
 
Remember Cory Little? Baseball pros don't have a good record as to exercising judgement....
Thurman Munson?
sigh.
 
They managed to squeeze in the fact that it was cruise flight and the auto pilot was on ... so what's everyone all hyped up about? :rolleyes:

"We're deeply disturbed by what we see in that video, which appears to show an unauthorized person in the flight deck at cruise altitude while the autopilot was engaged"
 
Daleandee said:
They managed to squeeze in the fact that it was cruise flight and the auto pilot was on ... so what's everyone all hyped up about? :rolleyes:

"We're deeply disturbed by what we see in that video, which appears to show an unauthorized person in the flight deck at cruise altitude while the autopilot was engaged"
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UAL public relations trying to make lemonade out of lemons; i.e., our flight crew was unprofessional, unsafe, and negligent only during an inherently safe phase flight.
 
Daleandee said:
They managed to squeeze in the fact that it was cruise flight and the auto pilot was on ... so what's everyone all hyped up about? :rolleyes:
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AFL593 noted above was in this exact configuration when the non-crew people started the crash sequence.
 
Daleandee said:
They managed to squeeze in the fact that it was cruise flight and the auto pilot was on ... so what's everyone all hyped up about? :rolleyes:

"We're deeply disturbed by what we see in that video, which appears to show an unauthorized person in the flight deck at cruise altitude while the autopilot was engaged"
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Let'sgoflying! said:
AFL593 noted above was in this exact configuration when the non-crew people started the crash sequence.
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Yep as I mentioned in original post it's dangerous because this is exactly how Aeroflot 593 crashed. Imagine how bad it would have been if United Airlines crew killed an entire professional baseball team?
 
Garavar said:
Yep as I mentioned in original post it's dangerous because this is exactly how Aeroflot 593 crashed. Imagine how bad it would have been if United Airlines crew killed an entire professional baseball team?
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It says he was sitting in the seat, not manipulating the controls. Frankly, although against United policy, I don’t think it was really “unsafe” assuming the FO was in his seat.
 
This is crap. By POLICY, we put untrained flight attendants in pilot seats ROUTINELY so one of the guys can go take a leak.

This is a total nothing burger.

1. If it’s anyones “fault”, it’s the air crew.
2. In single pilot jets, the right seat gets SOLD. Customers in it all the time.
3. If something like this crashed a jet, sounds like an incompetent pilot problem.

Must be a slow news day.
 
Tools said:
This is crap. By POLICY, we put untrained flight attendants in pilot seats ROUTINELY so one of the guys can go take a leak.
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I guess I'm watching too much Bluey, because my first thought was "This isn't the 80s, Pat!" :)

We are absolutely NOT allowed to put an FA in a pilot seat, and I think our policy is pretty standard these days. Regardless of the actual risk, the airlines are very sensitive to the optics in today's social media where everyone freaks out about everything, and these guys should have known better.

Years ago a couple of pilots at my airline let the Pope (it was a charter) come up to the flight deck of a 777 to take a picture. He just stood in the doorway, but the feds lost their damned minds. That was the Pope, he never actually got near the controls, but the pilots nonetheless came very close to being stripped of all their certificates. I'm not saying I agree, but I don't think this is gonna end well for the crew at United.
 
bbchien said:
Remember Cory Little? Baseball pros don't have a good record as to exercising judgement....
Thurman Munson?
sigh.
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Ah, reminded me of when I lived in the same town as Munson, and saw the plane across the road before it was blocked off (it was on my daily route to work, road just off end of runway.)
 
The team says the coach isn't losing his job, BTW.
 
ateamer said:
So two baseball players in 40 years crash and that means that they, as a whole, have poor judgement?
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I wouldn't say that, but many professional athletes are certainly in the "more money than brains" category... which is especially dangerous when mixed with aviation.
 
Tools said:
This is crap. By POLICY, we put untrained flight attendants in pilot seats ROUTINELY so one of the guys can go take a leak.

This is a total nothing burger.

1. If it’s anyones “fault”, it’s the air crew.
2. In single pilot jets, the right seat gets SOLD. Customers in it all the time.
3. If something like this crashed a jet, sounds like an incompetent pilot problem.

Must be a slow news day.
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At my air line the FAs aren’t allowed to sit in the control seat during our pee pee break
 
Bob Noel said:
Oh wow - did I parse the thread title wrong wrong wrong.

Colorado Rockies (as in the mountains)

Hitting (a verb)

Coach (as in coach seats...)

in other words, wrong wrong wrong...
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You're not the only one.

The Rockies hit someone in coach?
The Rockies hit their coach in the pilot seat?
Wait, present tense, so they are actually currently hitting somebody in the pilot seat?
 
Dana said:
I wouldn't say that, but many professional athletes are certainly in the "more money than brains" category... which is especially dangerous when mixed with aviation.
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You can add some doctors and lawyers in the “more money than brains” category also.

P.S.
 
Based on the Rockies record so far this year, it is a great excuse to fire the entire team
 
Tools said:
This is crap. By POLICY, we put untrained flight attendants in pilot seats ROUTINELY so one of the guys can go take a leak.

This is a total nothing burger.

1. If it’s anyones “fault”, it’s the air crew.
2. In single pilot jets, the right seat gets SOLD. Customers in it all the time.
3. If something like this crashed a jet, sounds like an incompetent pilot problem.

Must be a slow news day.
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Im reading the article thinking “So???” Glad to see it’s not just me.

I have a picture somewhere of myself sitting in the pilot’s seat of a commercial airliner, while the airliner was in cruise flight, taken on 9/11/2002 no less (and I was only a paying passenger, and with only a PPL). Long story, but I guess I should now destroy the negatives lol. And yes it was a film camera back then.
 
The pilots wont be fired. They will get counseled and returned to the line.
 
Jeff767 said:
The pilots wont be fired. They will get counseled and returned to the line.
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Hope you're right. Today's social media and outrage culture is the same reason I had them spraying Type IV as soon as I saw the first flurries. Makes no friggin' sense, but the last thing I needed was some airliners.net dork in 12A recording a single snowflake on the wing of a 170,000 pound airplane taking off.
 
this is what happens when you post EVERYTHING on social media, no one cared until someone put it out for public viewing.

My family has pictures of me in the pilot seat of a 747 when i was 4, thinking they should shutdown all flights
 
kayoh190 said:
Hope you're right. Today's social media and outrage culture is the same reason I had them spraying Type IV as soon as I saw the first flurries. Makes no friggin' sense, but the last thing I needed was some airliners.net dork in 12A recording a single snowflake on the wing of a 170,000 pound airplane taking off.
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It's too bad we can't put all the snowflakes on the wing of an airliner taking off.
 
jordane93 said:
At my air line the FAs aren’t allowed to sit in the control seat during our pee pee break
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Is that a required break.??

And if required, what happens if you need to go before, or after, that required break.??

:lol:
 
bbchien said:
Remember Cory Little? Baseball pros don't have a good record as to exercising judgement....
Thurman Munson?
sigh.
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The lapse in judgement was by the pilots, not the coach. They will, and should, be disciplined. They might lose their jobs.

The two players you mentioned were victims of their lack of training and the desire to demonstrate to others their prowess at the controls. Those circumstances and the outcome are common across the entire spectrum of pilots, and were unrelated to their profession as baseball players.
 
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