The Federal Aviation Administration is looking into the Colorado Rockies’ flight on United Airlines on April 10th after it seemed like a video showed hitting instructor Hensley Meulens sitting in the cockpit.
In a statement to various news outlets, a representative for United Airlines, which reported the incident to the FAA, said, “We’re deeply disturbed by what we see in that video, which appears to show an unauthorized person in the flight deck at cruise altitude while the autopilot was engaged, In a video that was removed from his Instagram account, Meulens can be seen sitting in a pilot’s chair while the camera moves around the cockpit to reveal the pilot sitting next to him.
Meulens captioned the photo, “Had some fun in the cockpit on our flight from Denver to Toronto.” United Airlines has stated that the airplane was in “cruise altitude” and autopilot was activated, according to Chris Vanderveen of 9 News Denver. “Thanks to the captain and the first officer of our United charter that allowed me this great experience,” I remarked.
The Rockies were flying from Colorado to Toronto for their series against the Blue Jays, which started on April 12 and ended this past Sunday. United Airlines deemed Meulens’s presence in the cockpit a “clear violation of our safety and operational policies,” and it has “withheld” the pilots from service while it conducts an internal investigation.