While the plane was in Los Angeles International Airport, the passenger had access to the cockpit.
Chang Kuo-wei, the founder and chair of Starlux, might be fined for allowing a passenger into the cockpit while the aircraft was at Los Angeles International Airport. As a pilot who is type-rated in all of Starlux’s aircraft, Kuo-wei served as the flight’s captain.
prospective fine
The inaugural flight of Taiwanese luxury airline Starlux Airlines from Taipei to Los Angeles took place last week. Sam Chui, an aviation influencer, was a passenger on the aircraft. After landing in Los Angeles, he was invited inside the cockpit of the Starlux Airbus A350 and posed for a picture with the captain.According to Aircraft Flight Operation Regulations Article 194,
Only authorized individuals and the operator’s flight dispatchers are permitted in the flight crew compartment of an aircraft.
Visits by passengers to the cockpit of an aircraft are not usually a concern, but in Starlux’s case, they were. The officials in charge of the investigation called the airline’s director of flight operations. Kuo-wei could be hit with a fine of less than $2,000 and the airline might only receive a warning if investigators conclude that he broke the law. An approximately $20,000 fine is possible for a second infraction.
Additional disarray
Due to the cancellation of two flights from Tokyo Narita Airport over the weekend, Starlux received criticism. Following two failed landing attempts at Narita on May 6, flight JX800 from Taipei to that airport was forced to divert to Nagoya. The plane finally took off from Nagoya after spending a few hours stationary there, and it took off and landed at Narita more than seven hours after the scheduled time.
The plane used for flight JX800 was supposed to return to Taipei as JX801 at 13:55 local time, but the trip was canceled due to weather circumstances on top of the delayed inbound arrival. Over 300 people spent the night in the Narita Airport as a result of JX803, Starlux’s second flight from Narita to Taipei, also being canceled.
One Mile At A Time claims that JX803’s initial delay was due to a maintenance problem, which was followed by an air traffic control (ATC) delay, which prevented the crew from working the flight and caused the crew to time out.Because immigration officers had gone home for the evening, passengers on the flight were forced to spend the night in the Narita terminal. Passengers slept on the floor after the airline provided sleeping bags. The chairman of Starlux took a flight the next day to Narita to personally apologize to the travelers and let them know the airline will refund all of their money.
