A 47-year-old captain at Air Nippon Co. has been punished for making a landing with a flight attendant in the cockpit, the transport ministry said Friday.
Effective Saturday, the captain's license will be suspended for 20 days. A written warning was issued to a 48-year-old copilot for neglecting to give the captain appropriate advice to prevent the misconduct.
The incident occurred Jan. 12 on Flight ANK154 from Tsushima, Nagasaki Prefecture, to Fukuoka Airport.
According to the ministry, the captain instructed the 28-year-old flight attendant to sit inside the cockpit during landing, even though he was aware this runs counter to the airline's flight regulations, which require attendants to take their designated seats inside the passenger cabin.
According to Air Nippon, the flight attendant first entered the cockpit for security reasons but ended up staying through the landing after the Boeing 737 was jolted badly due to bad weather.
However, some media reports claimed the captain was doing the flight attendant a favor and asked her to sit in the cockpit because she was quitting her job two days later.
Air Nippon suspended the captain from duty Feb. 7 through March 8 and cut his pay for February. The copilot was suspended from duty Feb. 7 to Feb. 16. Two executives also had their salaries cut for February.