Does anyone know why a flight attendant
goes into the cockpit when the captain has to use the rest room????

Safety reasons. FAA requires 2 people in the cockpit at all times. If the pilot in control had a heart attack or something similar, at the very least the FA would be able to open the secured cockpit door for the toilet visiting pilot.

I think it has something to do with new security procedures since 9/11. I usually see a flight attendant stand at the front of first class blocking anyone from going up to the cockpit area anytime that cockpit door opens. You may also notice that the curtains which seperate first class from coach are now a mesh which you can see through

The flight attendent goes into the cockpit when one of the pilots leaves so that they can be the "eyes and ears" for the pilot flying while there is a vacant seat-in other words....security!

folks, the ONLY reason is, as I already stated above, with the new security doors, it's only possible to open from within, thus the FA is there to do that, nothing more, nothing less........

AAFrequentFlyer,

Glad to see some common sense prevail. As you said it perfectly: The reason is that there is never only one person behind a locked door. This is for the very unlikely, but with catastrophic results, if the one pilot behind a locked door suffered a heart attack or something. The FA could open the door to let the other pilot in.

UA Frequent Flyer

I often sit in row 11 (upstairs, front row) on a 747. The cockpit is right in front of me. I see the FA's standing between the bathroom doors and the cockpit when one of the pilots comes out to use the facilities. I don't think the FA goes into the cockpit. But then, there are plenty of other cockpit crew members on a 747 when one leaves for a minute, right?

The 747-400 is a two-man aircraft. The earlier -100/200/300 do have an engineer.

On longer flights, there are relief crew. But there are rigid rules about when a crew is on-duty and off-duty, and who's in command of the plane. It's not as simple as "Let's call Joe up here and fly the plane while I go to the loo".

WHAT????? Shouldn't the cockpit doors be locked all the time to avoid another hijacking????????

You scare me people!

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