Flying on Cargo Jets

[cjsnell]

Hi,

I'm wondering if there are any commercial cargo airlines that allow non-employees to fly along with them. I've always been fascinated by cargo jets and it's been a silly dream of mine to fly along on a trans-oceanic cargo flight. I got the idea for this while reading a book called "Road Fever" (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0394758374/o/qid=969679895/sr=8-1/ref=aps_sr_b_1_3/002-7426989-5032028) by Tim Cahill. In this book, Tim describes how they flew their Chevy Truck from New York to Santiago Chile aboard a Flying Tigers (now FedEx) 747. On this flight, they sat in a small passenger section on the upper deck of the plane, just behind the pilot. When they were hungry, they took dinners from a freezer in the galley and heated them in the on-board microwave. I recall Cahill mentioning that they were allowed to sit in the jump seat in the cockpit, which was possible because this was technically not a passenger flight. He also describes walking to the rear of the upper deck and looking out on the immense, unlit cargo space below.

Cahill's adventure took place (if I recall correctly) in the late 80's or early 90's. Do cargo carriers still allow non-employees to fly along? Anyone have any info on this?

thanks,

Chris

[xizor]

I don't know about civilian cargo planes, but military personnel can catch rides (hops) on military cargo planes.

[Johnny L.A.]

If you're an employee, you might be able to fly on a cargo plane. I haven't heard of any cargo operations in the U.S. allowing non-employees to fly on their planes. Cargo can shift, aircraft can crash, and a light-fingered passenger can grab stuff that doesn't belong to him. Too much liability.

[Sue Duhnym]

I remember reading an acticle (no cite, sorry) that stated that one of the big carriers (IIRC FedEx) was shuttling passengers on weekends because otherwise, the majority of their planes were just sitting around. They did install seats though.

[cjsnell]

Well, I looked around a little more and found this:

http://www.law.emory.edu/6circuit/sept96/96a0306p.06.html

which seems to indicate that FedEx allows only employees to fly in the "jump seat". I'm still wondering about the other airlines, though...

[stuyguy]

I think I remember what Sue's talking about. But I think the carrier was/is UPS, not FedEx... but I could be wrong.

[cjsnell]

Ok, I found the story that y'all mention:

http://detnews.com/1997/biz/9703/14/03140018.htm

but it's still a bit different than what I have in mind. UPS is basically turning a cargo plane into a passenger plane. I'm interested in riding on an actual cargo plane. I guess I will just have to go and get a job @ FedEx. :)

[threemae]

Well, it would definitely be a major benefit. I would not mind working for a company that provides free air travel. I wonder what level you would have to be in the company.

[Jonathan Chance]

Allow me to add that I HAVE DONE THIS!!!

My dad used to be a big shot with Flying Tiger and we used to be able to hop rides on the commericial carriers (Continental, American, et al) all the time.

Once however we needed to get someplace quickly and dad took us on a Tiger plane. There was a VERY small (5-10) seats passenger area just abaft the cockpit. Dad glad-handed the crew and my sister and I got to spend some time in the cockpit sitting in the engineers chair during flight.

The meal was as described: just stuff warmed up in a small over not a microwave. This was the 70s after all. They may have had microwaves then but not in cargo jets!

Wow. I haven't thought of THAT in a million years. It was SO cool sitting up there and having the pilot show me what everything was and how to read the radar and stuff like that.

Thanks Chris.

Wow.

[black rabbit]

I'll have to ask my father about this, but IIRC, he and my grandfather hopped a cargo plane on one leg of their trip to Ireland about 10 years ago... may have been from Heathrow to Dublin or something. Neither were employees... just a mid-level bureaucrat and a mid level bank manager trying to save some cash.