Who is responsible for maintaining sterile cockpit?

• A. The first officer
• B. The captain
• C. The flight attendant
• D. The aircraft dispatcher

Answer: (B)

Maintaining a sterile cockpit means keeping nonessential discussions and activities out of the cockpit during high-workload, critical phases of flight. The captain has the ultimate responsibility for flight safety and for enforcing this discipline in the cockpit. As the pilot in command, the captain decides when the cockpit is in sterile mode and ensures the crew adheres to it, especially during taxi, takeoff, approach, and landing (and other periods of low altitude/high workload). The first officer can support and monitor, but the final authority to enforce the rule rests with the captain. Flight attendants are part of the cabin crew and operate under different duties; they are not responsible for maintaining sterile cockpit discipline in the flight deck. Dispatchers are ground personnel and do not supervise cockpit operations in flight.