Responding to a request from an orphan relief organization, two Air Algérie pilots invited a 12-year-old boy to spend a day with them. The pilots gave him a kepi and a fitting suit, and they are explaining him the pre-flight checks and the walk-around of the ATR 72-600 registered 7T-VUT. The whole day was filmed by a team of a television program for Algerian channel Elbilad TV.
In the episode you can see that the boy is sitting on the captain’s seat, clearly operating the instruments, though under the guidance of the co-pilot, the Algerian aviation authorities could not smile with the stunt of the pilots on the flight between Algiers and Aïn Arnat and immediately suspended the captain. Based on local newspapers Air Algérie wasn’t happy either and fired both pilots.
How well the pilots’ intentions were, it is still too early to have a 12-year-old in control of an aircraft.
