Deadheading (employee)

Deadheading is the practice of carrying, free of charge, a transport company's own staff on a normal passenger trip so that they can be in the right place to begin their duties.

For a public transit vehicle operating without accepting passengers, see Dead mileage.

Notable deadheaders
  • The day before the fatal Lion Air Flight 610 crash in October 2018, a deadheading pilot reportedly saved a Lion Air plane from the same malfunctioning flight control system that caused the crash the next day, killing 189 people. He was said to be in the cockpit jump seat when the malfunction happened; he figured out the problem and told the crew how to disable the system: by cutting power to the motor in the trim system, which was driving the nose down.[1]
  • One of the four survivors of Japan Airlines Flight 123 in August 1985 was a deadheading flight attendant, Yumi Ochiai. She helped administer oxygen to passengers after the plane suffered explosive decompression. She survived because she was wedged between several seats during the crash, protecting her from suffering serious injury.
  • In April 1994, on FedEx Flight 705, employee Auburn Calloway attempted to hijack the McDonnell-Douglas DC-10 on which he was deadheading with the intent of crashing it to initiate insurance fraud, but was repelled by the combined efforts of the plane's crew.[2]
  • Confidence trickster Frank Abagnale impersonated a pilot and supposedly deadheaded on more than 250 flights in the mid-1960s.[3]

See also

References
  1. Pilot Who Hitched a Ride Saved Lion Air 737 Day Before Deadly Crash by Alan Levin and Harry Suhartono, Bloomberg
  2. Kara Kovalchik, "True Crimes: The Man Who Hijacked a Cargo Jet", Mental Floss
  3. Skywayman: The Story of Frank W. Abagnale Jr., by Rachel Bell, TruTV.com
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