This isn't specifically Vegas related, but I hope one of you out there might know about this, or how to find out about it.

I heard that last Thursday an American Airlines pilot landed the flight from Rochester at its first stop, Charlotte; the flight was to supposed to continue on to Savannah.

The pilot got off the plane - and didn't come back! And no one seemed to know where he went or why - at least they weren't telling. The flight attendants kept announcing "we're sorry, we know you have questions, we don't have answers."

They finally took everyone off the plane and rebooked them on other flights.

I wonder if the pilot got sick or was disgruntled or what. What condition was he in on the first leg of the flight?

I heard this second hand. I was in Savannah, and a friend with me met someone from Rochester who had this experience.

I've tried google searches, not finding anything. Any ideas?

Since most of us must fly to get to Vegas, I guess that keeps this post on the board topic!

Kes

Kestal,
He could have had his flight hours in for the day. They can only fly so long and then must have down time before being able to fly again.

Sickness could also have been a problem, but usually someone on the flight would have known he wasn't feeling well.

The third, he walked off the job? I guess it could happen, heck it happens in every other profession, so why not pilots?
M2C

We can make it Vegas related.<g> Remember the Northwest pilot that walked off the plane a few years ago because he didn't like the food service for that flight? I think that was a Vegas bound flight.

Kestral,
The only incident that I am aware of last Thursday did have an American Airplane land early, but that was due to smoke in the cockpit. It was a flight from LaGuardia heading for Kansas City and it had to make a landing at Kennedy.

Perhaps this is the flight they were talking about? It doesn't mention if the pilot left the flight, but if he did it was probably due to slight smoke inhalation...

Tim

and it was a non-smoking flight <G>

More than likely the pilot got ill and they couldn't come up with a replacement in time so they moved people to other flights.
There's alomost no chance that he/she would just walk off because of the hours. Hours become more of a problem for the senior pilots who fly the long international routes and not the short hop ones. These people know their hours log and ether they go or don't go. The hours are a montly amount and easy to manage. The daily hours limit, again usually is not a problem unless its one of the longer routes. Even then they have extra pilots on board who take turns to keep the total time in line.

You may recall the plane that went down over the east coast several years ago and they suspected suicide (not proved). The pilots changed positions over the ocean and the pilot who took over plunged the plane into the ocean shortly after taking over.

From my military days going way back, we made our pilots eat differently pre-pared meals to avoid the entire flight crews getting food positioning. I'm not sure if they still do this or not.

Maybe he/they stopped or flew over "Area 51" instead of McCarren?........

Maybe he was a union pilot and the next leg of his trip wasn't in his contract. :rolleyes: