What is a deadhead pilot and what are the rules for them?

Any person who has watched the movie “Catch Me If You Can” (or read the book of the same title) has been a witness to the most famous fictional pilot with the greatest number of deadheads – Frank Abegnale. What also helped Frank was the fact that he was, in his own admission, “a darkly handsome young airline pilot, smooth-skinned, bull-shouldered and immaculately groomed”. This “most preposterous hoaxter who hoodwinked the world” flew two million air miles as a deadhead pilot of Pan American Airways. 

The word “deadhead” can have several connotations – as a verb, it can refer to pruning old petals in a flower to keep up its neat appearance; as a noun, it can either refer to a stupid person (and deadhead also rhymes with knucklehead, knobhead, dickhead, egghead etc..) or even a partially submerged log. Sometimes the definition of deadhead can be mired in obscurity. For instance, Natalie Scenters-Zapico’s poem “He Has an Oral Fixation” describes the insatiable gluttony of a person:

He can’t stop putting the dead

flowers, the deadhead nails, the deadweight

sacks of flour in his mouth…..His mouth a scar

of his hunger, a scar of his gluttony

after the hunger.

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The avid followers of the band “Grateful Dead” are often referred to as deadheads, too. [ According to the Urban Dictionary, Deadhead is “a person who greatly enjoys the music of the Grateful Dead and particularly the genius of Jerry Garcia.”] The sleeve of the second album of this band (Skull & Roses) read: 

DEAD FREAKS UNITE: Who are you? Where are you? How are you?

Send us your name and address and we’ll keep you informed.

Dead Heads, P.O. Box 1065, San Rafael, California 94901

In the past, people who attended public performances without paying for them were also referred to as deadheads. In trucking, for example, the word deadhead refers to “the transportation of an empty trailer, either to pick up a new load or return it to its point of origin, without carrying any cargo”. Deadheads and deadheading can refer to many things, but in aviation deadheading refers to the practice of flying an airline’s staff (a pilot or a flight attendant) on a routine passenger trip to ensure that they can start their duties from a particular place. 

Defining a deadhead pilot more precisely

There are occasions when a pilot might not be able to attend their duty (for various reasons such as ill-health, family grievances, flight cancellations etc.,). In such cases, another pilot working for the airline needs to be repositioned/ rescheduled to the place where the flight was about to take off from. The pilots who need to be repositioned might have to fly onboard an aircraft as passengers to start their active duty. Such pilots known as “deadhead pilots”, and though it might seem that a simple word as “commuting” (instead of deadheading) would do, there are quite a few differences.

Deadheading vs Commuting

If a pilot is living in a city different from his/her airline domicile, then (s)he needs to fly into base to start their duties. The pilot also has to return to their city after each trip. This is known as front and back-end commuting, and is neither compensated by the airline nor is it a part of the pilot’s working schedule. Further, front and back-end commuting is not protected by a pilot’s rest requirements. However, this is not the case with pilots that are deadheading because pilots who are deadheading are compensated equally to flying the plane. 

Airline pilot, Jack Herstam, shares another point of difference between deadheading and commuting:

“a deadhead is always a space-positive, confirmed ticket on the plane because it is operationally required. Commuting is a space-available modality of travel that requires crew members to have multiple flight options to get to work before their sequence begins. Commuting pilots often have to ride in the flight deck jumpseats if the flight is full, and flight attendants are allowed to ride in extra cabin jumpseats if they are available. Jumpseating is an invaluable method for getting to and from work, but it usually isn’t done on a deadhead.” 

Pilots who are deadheading need to be in uniforms as they might be called upon work, immediately after landing. Deadheading pilots can also be reassigned before leaving. Deadhead is not a term that is native to the aviation industry, though. Even in railway transport,  the “movement of a crew from one point to another or to a train by vehicle transportation or by train” is known as a deadhead, too.

Why do pilots (and flight attendants) deadhead? Do deadhead pilots tavel in uniform? 

In most airlines, deadhead pilots (and flight attendants) are seated in economy class. However, pilots working in American Airlines have been able to deadhead in first class in 2023. This change came about after a new union contract that allowed AA pilots to deadhead in first-class, much like United’s counterparts. Both airlines provide its pilots a “priority at the airport for available for class seats ahead of revenue passengers on the upgrade list”. Deadheading at first-class promotes well-rested pilots as this class generally has larger seats and provides a less stressful flight experience. But regardless of which class pilots are flying in, why is deadheading necessary?

Some of the reasons why pilots deadhead include:

• Replacing sick colleagues. 
• When a pilot falls ill (and the illness forces them to not be a part of the flight), they need to deadhead. 
• A part of a scheduled trip sequence
• as part of a trip sequence made up as they were flying

Deadheading pilots could be spotted quite easily during the Covid19 pandemic. 

Exceeding the maximum duty and minimum rest periods

Aviation is rife with unplanned delays. Such delays often lead to pilots exceeding their maximum duty periods. Sometimes, this also leads to a breach in the minimum rest requirements for pilots (as stipulated in the Federal Aviation Regulations (FARs) under the Title 14 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFRs)). In such cases, deadheading a pilot is the only viable solution. 

It is not only pilots who need to deadhead, though. Flight attendants need to deadhead, too. The parallels to why a pilot needs to deadhead might be found from the testimony of a flight attendant, as was the case of the following excerpt (of a cabin crew) from LA Times: 

“ I was part of a four-flight-attendant crew and was scheduled to work from Dallas to Indianapolis, back to Dallas and finally to Miami. Because of weather in Indianapolis, our inbound and outbound flights were delayed. By the time our plane landed about 9 p.m. in Dallas, the 8 p.m. Miami flight we had been scheduled to work had departed, staffed with standby flight attendants from our crew base in Dallas.”

Some people oboard might be surprised to see a pilot/ cabin crew in the passenger seats and be overwhelmed. People generally want to interact with pilots, and this experience can sometimes be too nerve-racking for the pilots, reported Plane and Pilot Magazine: 

“ Beyond appearances and proprieties, though, riding in the back is certainly different for a pilot than for a passenger. We can seldom just sit and read a book. By virtue of my uniform, I become a minor celebrity when I’m sitting in 6A. Passengers stare as they walk by, as if they can’t quite cipher it out. “That’s a pilot. He flies the plane,” they say to their children, pointing at me all the while like I was an animal at the zoo.” 

Sometimes the passengers might expect the deadheading cabin crew to help around with luggage. The deadheading cabin crew can decline, as they’re not on flights to perform their duties as a cabin crew, though.

What’s the difference between deadheading and jump seating?

Jumpseats, aka “auxiliary crew stations”, are “auxiliary seats of an aircraft that can be folded or collapsed out of the way when not in use”. These can be in the cockpit or in the passenger cabin. Pilots, flight attendants, and other off-duty airline staff categorized as non-revenue passengers can be traveling in these unbooked seats of the aircraft. So a pilot might as well be jumpseating. However, unlike deadhead pilots, jumpseating pilots aren’t paid. 

However, there might be some confusion between how these two words are used and perceived. Let’s take the example of the flight of Alaska Airlines Flight 2059 (Horizon Airlines Embraer ERJ-175 registered N660QX performing flight QX-2059/AS-2059) on 22nd October 2023. An off-duty Alaska Airlines pilot Joseph Emerson, who was on the jumpseat tried to shut off the engines of the aircraft and was charged with the attempted murder of the other 83 people on board.

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While The Aviation Herald reported that it had received information that the “jumpseat was occupied by a deadheading pilot, who attempted to shut both engines (CF34) down”, Alaska Airlines’ formal statement didn’t use the term “deadhead”:

 

“ On Oct. 22, Emerson approached Horizon Air Gate Agents overseeing the boarding process for Flight 2059. Following well-established, FAA-mandated practices to authorize a jump-seat passenger, our Gate Agent confirmed that Emerson was an off-duty pilot for Alaska Airlines. He was approved to join the flight as a passenger and was seated in the flight deck jump seat. All Gate Agents and Flight Attendants are trained to identify signs and symptoms of impairment. “ 

 

If there’s a dearth of passenger seats for a deadheading pilot, (s)he can be seated in the jumpseat- the extra fold-up seat in the cockpit. Time magazine noted that “most jumpseats are reserved for FAA inspectors or off-duty flight personnel traveling back to their home base”. 

What rules do Deadhead Pilots follow? Do they have any responsibilities?

There’s virtually no difference between rules followed by a deadhead pilot and by another passengers on the same carrier. As deadheading pilots don their piloting uniform, passengers might correlate the behavior of the deadheading pilot with that of the airline. Ryan Goodwin, a regional airline pilot in the US, shared the differences between flying as a passenger and a pilot in his piece for Simple Flying:

“As a passenger and not as a pilot in command or in second in command of the flight, I have no responsibilities unless I’m deadheading on a company airplane and the flight crew calls upon me. This is a very unlikely scenario. More than likely, the flight is an opportunity to relax and enjoy the experience.”

Despite the fact that deadhead pilots don’t need to provide any support to the pilot in command (PIC) and the first-officer of the flight, “the support given by the deadhead pilots comes in handy, especially during the critical flight phases: landing, take-off, final approach, and initial climb“, said Samira Sugoniak, Project Manager at Aeroclass.