# can an airline CEO sit in the cockpit of an airliner? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 15, 2015, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-an-airline-ceo-sit-in-the-cockpit-of-an-airliner/737653 "2015-11-15T22:00:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2015, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-an-airline-ceo-sit-in-the-cockpit-of-an-airliner/737653/21 "2015-11-19T23:20:58Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > Can an airline CEO (a non-pilot) take a fun flight ride sitting in the airliner cockpit as other pilots fly it on a normal flight route (an airliner that his company owns,) or is that illegal? Does the CEO like gladiator movies? ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2015, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-an-airline-ceo-sit-in-the-cockpit-of-an-airliner/737653/22 "2015-11-20T01:06:22Z")
> [@Horatio\_Hellpop](#): > > Orville Wright had been a CEO of the Wright Company until 1916 and sat on a lot of aviation boards until his death in 1948, and Eddie Rickenbacker was the leader (President? CEO?) of Eastern Airlines until 1959, and I suspect neither was licensed to fly a commercial airliner. I’d love to meet a pilot ballsy enough to kick either of them out of a cockpit, though! Orville Wright–when did he get _any_ license? Maybe he applied and was turned down because of a previous infraction, a flight which was photographed, luckily, so he can’t say it didn’t happen, and he was probably flying without a license. 1. In current times, how do people get caught flying w/o a license? Do they even try? It’s not like they might get pulled or might not, and be spot-checked. 2. Is flying without a license a felony? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-an-airline-ceo-sit-in-the-cockpit-of-an-airliner/737653.md?page=1)