Interesting MWARA intercept tonight on LDOC

Intercepted a phone patch from UAL 391 talking to United Dispatch on 6640khz LDOC through SFO.

http://home.comcast.net/~k7cj/6640UAL391.mp3

Please keep comments and speculation to a minimum as we don't know the whole story. I haven't seen any related news stories on any of the news sites as yet. This probably happens daily at various airports.


Cheers,
-Nick

Probably nothing to get excited about. The FAA inspectors, just like the CAA here, have the right to board an aircraft on the gate or in the hangar at any time to look at the paperwork, the clearances, pilots and engineers documentation, licences etc. We had to keep our licences and ratings paperwork on our person or in our toolboxes, especially when working on a US registered aircraft, at all times.

The airlines used to get a bit annoyed when a flight got delayed by an over-zealous inspector and they didn't pull any punches when it comes to grizzling to the gummint afterwards. Now they seem to have a 'gentleman's agreement' not to delay any departures.

majoco said:

Probably nothing to get excited about. The FAA inspectors, just like the CAA here, have the right to board an aircraft on the gate or in the hangar at any time to look at the paperwork, the clearances, pilots and engineers documentation, licences etc. We had to keep our licences and ratings paperwork on our person or in our toolboxes, especially when working on a US registered aircraft, at all times.

The airlines used to get a bit annoyed when a flight got delayed by an over-zealous inspector and they didn't pull any punches when it comes to grizzling to the gummint afterwards. Now they seem to have a 'gentleman's agreement' not to delay any departures.

Click to expand...

Martin, this has nothing to do with the FAA. The FAA is about establishing rules and regulations for flying (civilian and commercial aviation.) The Air Marshal service is run under our Homeland Security umbrella. AFAIK, the FAA doesn't have any LE branch.

In the recording, the pilot mentions that it was an undercover TSA agent that was "testing" the airline -- unannounced. This probably didn't sit well with the crew. It sounds like he was ultimately caught and turned over to local authorities prior to his identification being revealed.

I wish I had managed to catch the first part of the conversation because it's rare that a pilot would contact the agency dispatch while in-flight. Obviously, it must have been important (in the pilot's mind) to contact them ASAP.

You also hear the frustration in the Agency rep as well.