I Feel Bad: Fired United Airlines Pilot Speaks Out Over Viral Cockpit Incident

Several days ago, I wrote about how two United Airlines pilots were fired following a Colorado Rockies charter flight back in 2024 (this is getting more attention now due to a whistleblower hearing that’s happening). Specifically, one of the coaches had posted a video of him in the captain’s seat while inflight, which is a massive no-no.

Following the flight, both the captain and first officer were terminated. Understandably, many people wondered how it was possible for a sports coach to end up in the captain’s seat while inflight, since something like that should never happen.

I recommend checking out my previous post for background, since the captain’s defense sounded pretty compelling — according to her narrative, she had just gone to the bathroom, and while she was there, the coach sat in her seat without permission, totally catching her off guard. That logically raised the question of how the first officer would allow such a thing to happen. Well, we now have his perspective as well, and if anything, I’d say he has an even strong defense…

Why a United Airlines pilot let a sports coach into captain’s seat

With a lot of people coming to the defense of the captain, this sort of puts the first officer in an awkward position. He has reached out to share his take on what happened. Let me just quote his explanation of what happened — while it’s long, I think it’s worth understanding (and again, see the previous post for context).

Here’s the first officer’s perspective on what went down before the flight, in terms of preparation, and establishing rules around the cockpit door:

This was my first sports charter I have worked at United or any airline I previously worked at. I meet the Captain (CA) in the preflight briefing room just like any other flight. After we got to the aircraft I store my belongings, complete some preflight checks, and went to do the walk around.

I returned from the walk around to the CA and Flight Attendants (FA’s) doing their brief. The CA and lead FA said something that caught my attention. They both agreed to leave the door to the flight deck open. I thought this was going to be a normal flight except that we will be carrying “celebrities.”

While in the flight deck I questioned the CA about that decision and why we would allow the flight deck door to be open. She goes on to tell me that she worked a Denver Broncos charter in 2019 as a First Officer (FO) where she and her CA allowed a member of the team to sit in the jumpseat from departure through landing and other members of the team came up during flight to visit and take pictures/videos.

I had a hard time believing that was allowed but the CA also had around 25 years of experience at UA, had experience as a UA instructor (including teaching new hires about the Flight Operations Manual-FOM) and received the United 100 award given to the top employees at UA. I had my hesitations with what she was telling me, but her credentials were hard to ignore.

The team was late and we had some had time to kill. I went to the cabin to get some water and food. Thats where I ran into the lead FA and I asked her if what the CA was telling was true about charters. The lead FA is part of a crew who is dedicated to the Rockies. She proceeds to tell me that she allows the door to be open on charters and will bring members of the team up to the flight deck during flight flight to say hi and take pictures/videos.

At this point I have an experienced CA and the lead FA who flies the charters all the time telling me the same thing. It is ok for the door to be open and members of the team to be in the flight deck during flight. I want to make a note since I’ve seen confusion online. This was my first charter flight at any airline and was at UA for 15 months when this flight occurred. I was off probation.

Then here’s what happened during the flight, whereby the sports coach ended up in the captain’s seat:

The coach of the Rockies came to the flight deck about 35 minutes after departure. He was brought up by the FA who would eventually take the video. CA invited him to sit in the jumpseat behind me. The coach talked about his playing and coaching career and asked us questions about aviation.

The coach started taking pictures and videos of the flight deck and us just as the CA and lead FA told me would happen. In my mind I’m thinking this is weird but my fellow crew members and the coach seem so nonchalant about the situation, so I don’t say anything.

After the coach being in the jumpseat for about 30 minutes the CA mentions she needs to get up to use the restroom. She just gets up and leaves. Doesn’t call a FA to take her spot per the two-person policy. Door is still open at this point. It was open the whole flight. The coach and I were in the flight deck for about 20 seconds until a FA sees the CA has left and comes to satisfy the two person rule.

I was contacted by air traffic control about turbulence ahead and was asked if I wanted a new altitude. I go to the iPad to my right to check the turbulence at different altitudes, request a new altitude and start programming the aircraft for the new altitude. While I was task saturated, the coach left the jumpseat to go to the CA’s seat. By the time I noticed he was getting in her seat, he had given the FA his phone and said he wanted to take a video.

Ill be honest here, I initially froze. I have never been in a situation like this in my career. At that moment I should have told the coach to at least get back to the jumpseat. I wish I would have. The FA didn’t try to stop him from entering the seat. The coach also knew how to operate the CA’s control seat which made me think the coach has done this before. How was he so comfortable in the flight deck?

Again, my biggest mistake was not telling the coach to get out of the control seat but the way the FA was encouraging the coach while taking the video and the way the coach looked so comfortable in the seat I was at a crossroads in my head. This seemed so wrong but at the same time everyone around me seems so comfortable doing this. I did not listen to my intuition about the situation.

While the FA was filming, I could hear the CA’s voice in the galley. It was at this time where the second member of the Rockies came in for a few seconds. I read his statement. According to him the CA was out of the bathroom and by the flight deck door as he went into the flight deck, and she was by the door when he left the flight deck. The door to the flight deck was not closed at this time unlike what the story going around now says.

The coach was lifting himself out of the seat when the CA came back into the flight deck and they shook hands and left. The CA did not seem to have an issue once he left. I couldn’t believe it. There was no way she could have noticed him not in her seat. The jumpseat the coach was originally in is behind the FO’s side. The jumpseat behind the CA seat was latched and unusable.

The pilots are absolutely being used as scapegoats here

Initially I felt worse for the captain than the first officer, and wondered how the first officer just allowed the sports coach into the captain’s seat inflight. However, after reading the first officer’s perspective, I think there’s more merit to what he’s saying.

What a strange situation. Typically the airline industry is all about very clearly defined rules and procedures, yet somehow on charter flights, the rules go out the window. Based on what we know:

• The lead flight attendant, who primarily works charter flights, told the captain that they just leave the cockpit door open on charter flights
• The captain then seemingly very much bought into that, and communicated that to the first officer as her policy
• I get the first officer’s struggle here — he was a new hire pilot who had just been at the airline for 15 months and had never worked a charter flight, and here he had a flight attendant who primarily does charters, along with an experienced training captain, telling him that things are done a certain way

Regardless of how you want to break down responsibility between the two parties, it’s clear that there’s fundamentally a bigger issue here. It seems that it’s common for charter flights on airlines to have the cockpit door open, even though that’s a direct violation of regulations.

For an industry that otherwise takes a zero tolerance approach to things that eat into the safety margin, this is a downright strange oversight.

I think that’s what has caused so much confusion with this story. Like, we question how the pilots could just leave the cockpit door open like that, but then also learn that this is just accepted as a standard practice on charter flights across many airlines.

For example, in an email that has been shared with me from the head of the United pilot union’s Central Air Safety Committee, he acknowledged that “the door being open is the systemic piece,” and notes that “the ERIC did uncover a serious problem in the charter operations,” and that “the FAA came to the same conclusion.”

I am inclined to think that United is essentially scapegoating the two pilots, and especially, the first officer. It sounds like airline charter operations have for years largely been in complete violation of regulations, and somehow the world’s biggest airlines don’t do anything about it.

If the rules are the same as they are on Part 121 operations otherwise, crews can’t just arbitrarily decide what policies they’d like to apply. Of all the parties, I feel worst for the first officer, since both the very experienced captain and lead flight attendant insisted what they were doing was okay. Like, the captain didn’t even ensure two crew members were in the cockpit when she went to go to the bathroom?!

Also, in the below video, it sure seems to me like the captain is very comfortable with what’s going on, while the first officer looks super uncomfortable.

Bottom line

A United Airlines Colorado Rockies charter flight in 2024 got a lot of attention for all the wrong reasons. One of the coaches ended up in the captain’s seat during the flight, raising serious concerns about how something like that could happen.

The pilots both claimed they were being scapegoated over systematic charter issues, which I increasingly think is absolutely true. It sounds like it’s totally normal (at least historically) for charter flights to allow cockpit visitors, even if they’re on Part 121 operators.

Initially I felt worse for the captain, who claimed she had gone to the bathroom while the coach took the captain’s seat without permission. However, the first officer’s defense is arguably even more compelling, since he apparently repeatedly brought up concerns about the cockpit door remaining open, only for the captain to insist that was the correct policy.

What do you make of this United pilot cockpit door scapegoat situation?