I am wondering if a First Officer wants to perform religious ritual for 5 minutes just in galley or if not possible in the cockpit or at worst in her chair, how it is considered? Will captain report this to the company? Is it illegal?
I am a Muslim and my religion allows me to combine prayers for noon and afternoon together and evening and night prayer together when i am on travel. But yet, I can not skip morning prayer which is to be performed within 1.5 hour slot in the morning around 5-6 am, and it takes 5 minutes.
I know not always this coincides with flight, but before everything I want to make sure I can perform my religious rituals.
It isn’t a question of being reported by the Captain or being illegal, it just isn’t feasible to stop operations to pray. The airlines do not stop or slow down for anybody, nor are they required to by law.
Thank you very much for the answer. I am really grateful for your contribution.
But I wonder for the times that pilots are allowed to leave cockpit for needs of toilet or move to heal their leg problems. Performing my prayers is equally important for me as the two that I have mentioned.
And I am not talking about a time of take off or landing stages, but when it is OK for me to let the captain operate on her own for a 5 minute period.
It is never acceptable to do what you are asking. Lavatory breaks are very quick and occur during times of low workload. What would happen if you had a two hour taxi out and your prayer time was due right before takeoff? If the airline is moving, you can’t go pray during this time and are you going to delay the departure so you can pray? This will never be tolerated.
Beyond that, it is never acceptable to leave the other pilot alone for five minutes at any phase of flight. The airplanes are certified to be flown with two pilots at all times except for very quick physiological reasons.
I understand this is important to you, but you are going to need to chose between your religious observances and this career.
I have no idea how they manage these things in Muslim countries but here in the US you’ll definitely have an issue. While in the cockpit pilots are restricted to activities ONLY related to the flight, the galley is for the flight attendants to perform their duties and the lavatories are for “quick” essential physical needs. While I appreciate you may consider your prayers as essential in reality they are not, they’re a choice. Jews and Christians must fly on their Sabbaths and holy days and yes I know Christian pilots who have gotten in trouble for praying in the cockpit. While it may seem like an easy accommodation for the airline to make, due to operational needs they would definitely be times when it’s simply not possible.
I understand that. What happens if you and your Captain are so diametrically opposed to the other’s religion and/or politics that you can’t stand to be in each other’s presense?
You mean like me? One thing you learn in training is you should never discuss religion or politics on the flight deck (it’s even in some manuals). Obviously there’s no cockpit police and people do have a variety of conversations on a variety of subjects. The rule really is don’t discuss religion and politics if you’re incapable of doing so without getting upset, you’re intolerant or disrespectful. As it’s supposed to be a given that we’re professionals first and above all else. We work as a crew to safely deliver our passengers from point A to B. Now if someone says or does something to offend you that’s on them BUT if you’re offended by their mere presence, appearance or what they believe when they’re out of uniform, you clearly do not have the ability to be conduct yourself as a pilot and have no business being in the cockpit.
Btw, in addition to being a Jewish Capt I’m also a Jewish pilot union officer. My primary responsibility is to advocate and the defend my pilots. Without going into detail, pilots can do some pretty dumb stuff but harass, discriminate against or disrespect someone due to sex, race, religion etc. and you are done!
A muslim started the thread about religion. I merely pointed out what happens if her Captain wasn’t a muslim and was of a religion that muslims have vowed to destroy.
No matter what line of work you are in, you are there to work. If your religion requires you to do certain things at certain times, you may not want to consider this field. I am a devout Catholic. I’m sure there are Catholic pilots who have missed Easter and Christmas. But they don’t ask for special exclusions or accommodations. In most cases, the company you are applying for asks if you are able to perform without special accommodations. Prayer is sacred and deep to people. However, when you are in charge of a 19 Ton aircraft and 100’s of lives…your priority is getting your job done. Don’t expect to be treated differently or the airline (and airport) to allow you a break for any reason…
That being said, some times- SOME times… I think this generation coming up looks for a reason or a loophole to make a scene to get attention or make a mountain out of an anthill.
My personal opinion is, if you can not commit to giving your undivided attention solely to your task at hand, perhaps that job isn’t right for you.
I would recommend you reach out to Muslim pilots to see what and how they do it?
I know I’m answering this 3 years later, not even sure if you’re on the forum still, but I wanted to put my 2 cents here as an aspiring pilot who happens to be a Muslim, in case anyone has your same concern in the future. As Muslim from a traditional Arab Muslim background, I truely appreciate your dedication to the prayers on time, which is obviously what we’re supposed to do. But I think anyone with this question in mind should do 2 simple things first:
Ask yourself first if you really love flying and seriously wanna pursue this dream?
What do you think a devout Muslim surgeon or fire fighter would do? If it was Maghreb and the surgeon leaves you cut open or the firefighter not go to put out a fire because he needs to pray, I don’t think anyone would be pleased with that, let alone if this is even right religiously speaking. If that was the case we wouldn’t be able to function as Muslim societies, think about it for a little moment. Even in Mecca itself, there are guards that don’t pray in Kaaba because they gotta watch over the people praying.
Simply put, some jobs require your unparalleled attention regardless of anything because it’s people’s lives and it’s a responsibility, even when you don’t think it is for 5 mins. This happens to be one of them, and while you are COMPLETELY permitted to do you prayers later, since you have a legitimate excuse here for doing a very important job, you’ll be the one making that decision in the end.
Hope that helped in anyway for anyone it may concern.
