Can a check pilot pull out a circuit-breaker?

Mumbai: How serious is the act of pulling out a circuit-breaker during a flight? Can a check pilot do that, when there are passengers aboard, to test the skills of a commander?
Pulling out a circuit-breaker during a flight does not deactivate just one system. It could result in many related systems failure that could affect the safety of the aircraft, said Capt A Ranganathan, a former instructor pilot and air safety expert. A circuit-breaker is an automatic safety device which trips and cuts the current flow to prevent damage to a system in case of an emergency, like a short circuit.
The Boeing 737 Flight Crew Operations Manual disallows attempts to reset the circuit even in the event of a technical or systems failure that might result in a circuit-breaker tripping. So the question of pulling out a circuit-breaker in a normal situation just to test a pilot does not arise. Flight crew resetting a tripped circuit-breaker during the flight is not recommended unless specifically directed to do so in a non-normal check list (a non-normal checklist is a to-do list to be followed when there is an emergency or failure in the system), says the Boeing manual. Flight crew cycling of circuit breakers to clear non-normal conditions is not recommended unless directed by a non-normal checklist, the manual says.
But on October 20 on Jet Airways flight 9W 332 a check pilot, who was in the cockpit as a passenger, pulled out the circuit-breaker on radio altimeter, one minute before the flight was to touch down at the Mumbai airport.
04/12/09 Manju V/Times of India

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Categories: Jet Airways Dec 2009, Safety Dec 2009