SriLankan Airlines Captain Locks Copilot Out Of Flight Deck

Wathever the reason that guy had, after what happened before (I'm just thinking of the intentional Crash of German Wings a few years ago in Southern France) that guy should be fined and baned to enter a plane for life, let alone a cockpit.

I am really shocked that Sri Lankan would only have two pilots on a flight from SYD to CMB. Most airlines have an extra pilot on flights over 9/10 hours.

Dumb to lock everyone out. Should have invited a flight attendant to sit in the cockpit until they landed, then make the first officer sit outside (in coach) and think about what she did.

"...make the first officer sit outside (in coach) and think about what she did."

This isn't kindergarten.

We have no idea why the FO couldn't wait, but personal "emergencies" do happen, and we have no idea why she couldn't wait. I suggest she be given the benefit of the doubt until the investigation is complete.

Why are you assuming there weren’t 3? This obviously happened en route (over the course of a few minutes) when if a 3rd pilot was being carried they would ideally be fast asleep in their “rest facility”.

"The logic for having two people in the cockpit is primarily to prevent a pilot with a mental health issue from taking control of the aircraft, given that we’ve seen a fair number of pilot suicides over the years, when they were alone in the cockpit."

That's a nice side effect of the policy, but not the primary reason. A second person needs to be in the cockpit primarily to open the door for the second pilot in the event that the pilot remaining in the cockpit becomes incapacitated, such as a cardiac event or stroke.

Let's be honest... a pilot with mental issues could have both engines shut down before a flight attendant who came up to the cockpit even realizes anything is happening. She can't stop him from doing that, but she can let the other pilot back up if he does.

@ Michael -- It's my understanding that on most jets there's a code to enter the cockpit. If entered correctly, there's a chime in the cockpit, so the person inside can either accept or reject it. However, if neither is done, then the door automatically opens 30 seconds later. That would seem to deal with cockpit incapacitation issues. Is there something I'm missing?

Regarding pilots with mental health issues being able to do something when someone else is in the cockpit, that's theoretically true. But look at all the incidents we've seen over the years where a pilot intentionally took down a plane. In each situation, as far as I know, it was when they were alone in the cockpit.

Someone is going to find out that there are other lesson givers in his organization

The First Officer needs to be grounded until given opportunity to share her side of the story. Was she in danger of having a bladder/bowel accident and exited asap? Why did she not follow protocol? Etc. Is this a power issues over gender and role in sri lankan culture?

Shut up Tim!

Certainly irresponsible and worthy of reprimand on both parts, but the captain's action was more egregious and a potential immediate safety threat.

If this synopsis of events is accurate it seems that they both behaved inappropriately. Flight crews must operate their aircraft in accordance with the operating manual, company policy, and the law. In this case both the FO and captain have apparently violated company policy. I'm not certain why he's the only one who's grounded.

I don’t understand this at all, the First Officer wouldn’t have just “bolted” from her seat . There would have been an interphone call made to the Cabin crew ( surely) that the F/O was needing to leave the flight deck and they needed a F/A to relieve her , so to speak, another story that hasn’t been fully explained and another reason I’d never fly with them again as my last flight was awful in all aspects

The flight attendant is in the cockpit primarily to look through the viewing port, to verify it’s one of the pilots trying to get back into the cockpit, before they open the door.