Etydhv

Yesterday, I took an inter-European commercial flight with a popular budget airline. Before take-off, the captain announced that the First Officer would be taking the entire flight today.

During the middle of the approximately 2 hour cruise, the seat-belt sign came on. The flight attendant, who was next to me at the time, quickly turned to look at the front of the cabin.

The captain came out of the cockpit, a flight attendant took his place and locked the door behind him, he spoke over the PA system and asked everyone to fasten their seat-belts. A couple of people stayed up and he firmly told them, again over the PA, to sit down and fasten their seat belts.

Despite largely overcoming my fear of flying recently, I was slightly alarmed at this point, so I asked the flight attendant if we were expecting some turbulence. He told me that no, we weren't and that the seat-belt was only because the captain needed to use the restroom.

Sure enough the captain used the restroom, came out, re-entered the cockpit and a few minutes later turned the light off.

My question - is this standard procedure or is it likely the flight attendant was giving me the 'passenger friendly' version of the story? I have since wondered if it was the FOs first 'solo' flight and if that might have been related.

In the US they do very similar theater when a pilot needs to relieve himself. There is an announcement that nobody is allowed to come forward, and grim looking flight attendants are blocking the aisles with coffee trolleys. The details surely depend on the airline.

Each of these procedures goes back to some bad incident. The cockpit doors are locked since 9/11. Since Germanwings 9525 (PIC on toilet, co-pilot had a death wish, cockpit door locked), a flight attendant has to replace the pilot in the cockpit. I'm not sure if there was an incident calling for body-guarding a pilot outside of the cockpit, but maybe someone can comment.

Even though it is much more likely to get killed by your angry spouse or just falling down the stairs at home, security procedure theater is in fashion, and it is just getting worse and worse. Yes, it is very plausible that the seat-belt sign activation in your flight was standard procedure to ensure that the PIC could pee in peace.

^{This photo of Thomas Cook Airlines (UK) is courtesy of TripAdvisor}

This is standard procedure when a pilot needs to use the lavatory (bathroom).

1. The area near the front lavatory is blocked off by cabin crew, so you cannot get into this area.




2. The pilot unlocks the cockpit door, steps out, and goes into the lav.




3. a cabin crew member takes his place, and the cockpit door is closed.




4. reverse steps 1-3.

Why step 1? To avoid a rush on the cockpit by malefactors. This change occurred after 9/11 -- prior to that, "The Book" on dealing with hijackers said to give them cockpit access, because they'd never done anything bad with it.

Why step 3? So the remaining pilot is not alone in the cockpit. In some airlines, this has been standard practice for years, because of fear of accidents suspected to be solo pilots making a horrible mistake. This was strongly disputed by the unions and doubters, and there wasn't data-recorder data. There was after a burst of them: 2013 LAM 470 (data recovered), 2014 Malaysian 370 (suspected; no data) and 2015 Germanwings 9525 (data recovered). Nobody could deny it anymore, and everyone applied the rule.

Interestingly, Tom Clancy predicted both 9/11 and the emotionally distraught solo pilot, in his 1994 book Debt of Honor.

By the way, the reason the copilot took the flight was that he needs a certain number of takeoffs, landings and hours of flight to keep his skills up.

Airlines are free to add any safety procedures they deem necessary for safety-of-flight situations. If that is what they did, it's likely standard procedure for that airline.

Crews usually work together for several days as a unit, and the CA and FO usually alternate flying each leg. This allows each to stay current and for the FO's skills to grow through critique by the CA and by observing the CA, depending on whose leg it is. In the event of emergency, though, the CA will usually take over.

Part of the reason the FO is there is to handle things if the CA is somehow incapacitated, so he is necessarily fully qualified to fly the plane alone. However, for security and safety reasons, both pilots are required to remain in the cockpit except during brief periods during cruise, such as the one you describe.

It is remotely possible that it was the FO's first revenue flight in type; after all, everyone has a first day at any new job. But there is nothing in your story that would indicate that was true in this case. It just sounds like the CA needed to use the restroom, nothing more complicated than that.