From the latest Crikey Daily, author of this article, Ben Sandilands, erstwhile
airline reporter and critic.

The original article has two photos, one of an FA sitting in the captain's seat,
then another of the FO doing the same.

Obviously I can't post the message in its intactness here. But the images are
blurred to hide the people's identities.

----[start of original article]-----

Stewardess in the pilot's seat: Flying High on Jetstar
Ben Sandilands writes:

Why is a flight attendant sitting in the captainÂ’s seat of a Jetstar A330 in
level flight at around 250 knots airspeed?

And who else was on the flight deck when the first officer posed in the same
seat after or before the 305-passenger jet appears to have slightly changed its
heading?

CASA says it doesnÂ’t act on anonymous photographs.

We obscured the faces of the flight attendant and first officer, but Crikey will
send CASA the unedited images.

There are enough breaches of air safety regulations implicit in these images to
result in criminal prosecutions.

The sender of these images points out that the first officer may well have
proper cause to be in the left hand seat in providing relief to the captain, or
for training purposes if it wasnÂ’t a flight carrying passengers.

However, the air safety regulations only allow appropriately licensed and
qualified persons to occupy a control seat while an aircraft is in flight.

The anonymous emailer lists several risks in the situation of the flight
attendant in a pilotÂ’s seat.

An instruction for a change in heading or altitude by air traffic control may
not be acted upon.

She would be incapable of responding to a TCAS or automated collision alert
system warning which is triggered when aircraft are converging courses, and
depends on the pilots of each flight diving, climbing or changing course
according to a computer generated instruction.

In an emergency procedure caused by a cabin depressurisation or an engine fire
she would be occupying a seat urgently required by a pilot.

Our informant is critical of the pilot culture at Jetstar and says, "Due to an
industrial requirement of keeping costs low promoting pilots in house, the
experience, safety culture and compliance with simple regulatory requirements
have been neglected.

"Alan Joyce [currently Jetstar CEO pending taking over that role at Qantas]
stated some time ago his concerns that bringing in qualified crew would 'pollute
the Jetstar culture' . One must wonder exactly what culture he is trying to
protect."

Jetstar this morning launched a full inquiry into the matter and has also
notified CASA of its inquiries.