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Re:A customer reported an error in the map used by Flight Si... by TerminalJunkie on Tuesday April 18, 2017 @03:12PM (#14141938)
This quote was stolen from the comments section on the original article by Brian_EE

"I wonder how realistic the operations of the virtual airlines are. In the game, do you get to have local police come on your plane and beat up your passengers and drag them off before you take off on your flight route?"

Re:A customer reported an error in the map used by Flight Si... by sandworm101 on Tuesday April 18, 2017 @04:59PM (#14142864)
FS is pilot-focused. They dont simulate the exciting world of ticket counters and baggage limits. But there is probably a german sim that, from the makers of AirportSimulator (see nerdcubed's coverage of that series). German simulators are a strange market niche.
Re:A customer reported an error in the map used by Flight Si... by matt4077 on Tuesday April 18, 2017 @05:39PM (#14143196)
I haven't wasted enough time on the United incident, but I would guess that the pilot did get involved at some point. They have, similar to a ship's captain, a legal status that goes beyond that of, say, a bus driver. I don't think the cabin crew would invite police onboard without the captain's approval.

And, while I am German, I have not seen Ryanair Checkin Simulator 2000. I'll have to check the section behind the curtain, though. May have been x-rated for excessive violence and unsatisfactory kink.

Of course, it's easy to create it yourself in Simulator Simulator 2017 if you have the "Extreme Queuing (Britain)" expansion pack.

Re:A customer reported an error in the map used by Flight Si... by tacostakohashi on Tuesday April 18, 2017 @07:53PM (#14144203)
I've also wondered about the pilots during the United incident, and media coverage has been strangely quiet on that topic.

The executive summary of the incident seems to be that there just weren't any adults in the room. One can easily picture gate agents, flight attendants, and the aviation department staff involved basically feeling that they must follow instructions, being worried about breaking policies, being written up, whatever.

You'd hope that if the whole thing were put in front of a pilot, they'd perhaps take a more wholistic, pragmatic, problem-solving view, and try a few other options first. Seems like almost anything would have been better - talking to the passengers, getting everybody to leave the plane and reboard / sort it out in the terminal, cancelling the flight, getting a bigger plane, putting the airline staff on a different airline, anything. If a pilot couldn't come up with a better solution to something like this, I'd worry how they'd fare in the air with a mechanical emergency.

Re:A customer reported an error in the map used by Flight Si... by mikeash on Tuesday April 18, 2017 @09:01PM (#14144587)
My uninformed guess is that the pilots had no idea of the details of what was going on. They were probably in the cockpit with the door closed preparing for their part of the flight. No doubt they were kept informed of the situation, but it was probably vague generalities like, "We need to bump four passengers so we can deadhead crew, we should have you ready to go in 15 minutes." And next thing the poor pilots know, they have a starring role in a lawsuit.
Re:A customer reported an error in the map used by Flight Si... by tacostakohashi on Tuesday April 18, 2017 @10:14PM (#14144938)
I think that's quite possible, and I'd like to believe that's what happened. I guess there must be a cockpit voice recording somewhere - I wonder if that will ever come out, or if people need to die for that to happen.

I'm still kind of skeptical that the pilots could be completely oblivious about it though. You'd think that if something is serious enough for a flight attendant or gate agent to call law enforcement, and get them onto the plane, then they'd tell the pilot about it too, if only as a courtesy or practical measure so they're not surprised about the noise or banging on the door. Also, at some point the pilots are going to have manifests of passengers vs crew, and that would change, so you'd think they'd see that happening, since the plane was fully boarded it seems possible they'd have had the first manifest, and wonder about / be annoyed about late changes. Or, maybe they'd simply see the law enforcement folks get on, or hear the call on the intercom / radio, etc.

I'm more inclined to think that the situation was misrepresented to them ("we have an unruly passenger, but we're taking care of it"), and they took it at face value without asking any questions. Will be interesting to see what comes out.

Re:A customer reported an error in the map used by Flight Si... by sverige on Tuesday April 18, 2017 @10:18PM (#14144951)
Actually, they were not United pilots, but pilots for Republic Airlines which was operating the United flight. The United Pilots union issued an angry statement, as unions are wont to do. [0,1]

[0] http://www.businessinsider.com/united-airlines-pilots-letter...

[1] [Video] http://www.msn.com/en-us/tv/video/united-pilots-issue-statem...

Re:A customer reported an error in the map used by Flight Si... by digi_owl on Tuesday April 18, 2017 @05:55PM (#14143334)
Sorry if this is a sidetrack but thinking about weird simulators reminded me of a "simulator" of sort that I ran into way back when. It involved getting individuals in a town to do various tasks by manipulating their vices and virtues.
Re:A customer reported an error in the map used by Flight Si... by ymse on Wednesday April 19, 2017 @12:51AM (#14145506)
This sounds like real life to me.
Re:A customer reported an error in the map used by Flight Si... by Crespyl on Tuesday April 18, 2017 @05:36PM (#14143167)
I'd love to see "German Simulator 2017". Maybe it could be a day in the life of a simulator programmer.
Re:A customer reported an error in the map used by Flight Si... by sandworm101 on Tuesday April 18, 2017 @06:27PM (#14143594)
Reply to myself, but I just rewatched nercubed's airport simulator vids. This is what I was talking about re German simulators:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwkpogkNpco

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwFPHuofoDk

Re:A customer reported an error in the map used by Flight Si... by selimthegrim on Tuesday April 18, 2017 @11:16PM (#14145191)
I remember googling furiously once I discovered Euro Truck Simulator to confirm it wasn't some Steam Greenlight prank...
Re:A customer reported an error in the map used by Flight Si... by yongjik on Tuesday April 18, 2017 @11:38PM (#14145277)
I heard that game has some cult followers in Korea. Some gamers buy steering wheels and gears, put on the monitor a sticker saying "Freight Union", wear fingerless gloves and a red Freight Union vest, and start driving while listening to radio...
Re:A customer reported an error in the map used by Flight Si... by Cthulhu_ on Wednesday April 19, 2017 @06:54AM (#14146843)
I've played it for a bit, I can see the appeal. For a game it (IMO) gets very old very quickly though, not much progression in it.

Used to have a different game back in the day, Hard Truck iirc, which was a lot more game-y - areas you couldn't reach with the one truck, offroad sections, truck racing, etc. Very satisfying at the time.

Re:A customer reported an error in the map used by Flight Si... by VLM on Wednesday April 19, 2017 @08:01AM (#14147091)
"Papers, Please" is kind of close

http://papersplea.se/

Re:A customer reported an error in the map used by Flight Si... by notwhoyouthink on Wednesday April 19, 2017 @01:05PM (#14149392)
I found Papers, Please to be a really fascinating game. I've been on a indie binge lately (Firewatch is another recent favorite) and I felt Papers, Please had a really great story that a lot of indie games are missing. Plenty of options and tough choices to make, with different outcomes for everything.

I also appreciated that I could walk away at any point and pick it up later. I didn't feel "trapped" having to finish a mission like too many AAA games. Well worth the ten bucks in my opinion.

Re:A customer reported an error in the map used by Flight Si... by grb423 on Tuesday April 18, 2017 @03:35PM (#14142140)
only if they resist lawful orders
Re:A customer reported an error in the map used by Flight Si... by macintux on Tuesday April 18, 2017 @03:56PM (#14142309)
Dying to know which part of that whole debacle was lawful.
Re:A customer reported an error in the map used by Flight Si... by sandworm101 on Tuesday April 18, 2017 @07:10PM (#14143892)
Take it from a lawyer: Do not argue with them. Pilots and ship captains are special. Their word is law. You can sue them afterwards, you can report them to police and they could be charged if they had no good reason to order your removal. But at that moment on that plane they are kings. If a pilot wants you off you have to get off. Once the pilot requested police help there was nothing that man could have done to stay aboard.

They should not have treated him in that way, they should not have been violent, but so long as the pilot wanted him off he was obligated.

Re:A customer reported an error in the map used by Flight Si... by inopinatus on Tuesday April 18, 2017 @07:22PM (#14143986)
Untrue in my jurisdiction and likely others. We have a limited range of circumstances in which the pilot in charge (or their delegates viz. cabin crew) may compel disembarkation. Drunkenness or presenting a safety risk are on that list. Overbooking is not.

So no, I won't "take it from a lawyer".

Re:A customer reported an error in the map used by Flight Si... by usrusr on Wednesday April 19, 2017 @02:09AM (#14145817)
So then one possible course of action in case of post-boarding overbooking would be free drinks until enough passengers are sufficiently drunk to be removed? One more for the endless list of less bad things that could have been done instead at the United incident.
Re:A customer reported an error in the map used by Flight Si... by sandworm101 on Tuesday April 18, 2017 @07:39PM (#14144106)
That's isnt the same thing. The pilot can be incorrect. Him ordering your removal can be a criminal act. Him ordering you off could see him put in jail. There were cases about this decades ago (think white captains refusing black passengers). That doesn't mean that a passenger can stay once ordered off. Whether the removal order is legal or not comes afterwards.
Re:A customer reported an error in the map used by Flight Si... by cmdrfred on Wednesday April 19, 2017 @10:15AM (#14147844)
You can beat the rap, you can't beat the ride.
Re:A customer reported an error in the map used by Flight Si... by jsz0 on Tuesday April 18, 2017 @09:33PM (#14144743)
Anything that causes a delay can be a potential safety risk
Re:A customer reported an error in the map used by Flight Si... by tigershark on Wednesday April 19, 2017 @06:36AM (#14146770)
Like trying to throw someone already boarded out of the plane, involving security officers, police, violence and broken teeth? Yes, I would definitely say that that kind of behaviour was a really outrageous safety risk. The pilot, accordingly to your narrative, should have thrown out of the aircraft all the crew and whoever was involved in this gigantic fuck up to avoid a very serious safety risk.
Re:A customer reported an error in the map used by Flight Si... by CamperBob2 on Wednesday April 19, 2017 @12:16AM (#14145399)
Take it from a lawyer: Do not argue with them. Pilots and ship captains are special. Their word is law.

A lot of those rules kick in only after the door is closed, or when the aircraft pulls back from the gate.

Re:A customer reported an error in the map used by Flight Si... by sandworm101 on Wednesday April 19, 2017 @12:16PM (#14148890)
True, but a pilot can leverage that later power by not taking posession of the plane. Door stays open, airline cancels flight and everyone is now a trespassor and must get off.
Re:A customer reported an error in the map used by Flight Si... by bahmboo on Tuesday April 18, 2017 @03:42PM (#14142203)
You still don't get to "beat them up"
Re:A customer reported an error in the map used by Flight Si... by recursive on Tuesday April 18, 2017 @03:38PM (#14142169)
So is there a simulation of a legal system also? How will it determine lawfulness?
Re:A customer reported an error in the map used by Flight Si... by jxramos on Tuesday April 18, 2017 @04:05PM (#14142388)
Is this a reference to United Airlines? It's funny its going viral in all sorts of places! There was a comment here that was since deleted https://aviation.stackexchange.com/a/37169 about carpets and being dragged off the plane.