Narrative:

I was the first officer and the monitoring pilot on this flight. The captain on the flight was my boss. In our jumpseat was our [company superior]. To say that is stressful would be an understatement. Not only did I want to impress my boss but I wanted to impress our [company superior]. While flying [company superior] asked me to point out a couple of landmarks to our passengers that he thought they would enjoy seeing from the air. On our descent into las he saw the hoover dam ahead and to the left. He nudged me and said to let the passengers know that we would be flying over lake mead and the hoover dam on our descent. I made a quick announcement without thinking. Someone in the back of the aircraft filed a safety report with the FAA saying I broke sterile cockpit procedure when I made the announcement. I do not remember the exact altitude I made the announcement or if we were or were not in sterile cockpit at that point. I should have been more attentive and payed closer attention to our altitude and if we were in sterile cockpit. Another safety report filed on the same flight arose because the three of us took a picture together while we were cruising across the country. This picture was taken out of sterile while we had the autopilot and auto-thrust engaged. I have been counseled by the FAA and they have said that the picture is not a big deal since it happened out of sterile cockpit. They refreshed me on our sterile cockpit procedure and I will work to uphold that in the future. Again; I do not know if we were above or below 10;000 ft. I just made a quick PA without thinking. To correct this I will work on being more attentive in the future.

Google
 

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A320 First Officer reported allegedly making PA during sterile cockpit environment.

Narrative: I was the First Officer and the monitoring pilot on this flight. The Captain on the flight was my boss. In our jumpseat was our [Company Superior]. To say that is stressful would be an understatement. Not only did I want to impress my boss but I wanted to impress our [Company Superior]. While flying [Company Superior] asked me to point out a couple of landmarks to our passengers that he thought they would enjoy seeing from the air. On our descent into LAS he saw the Hoover Dam ahead and to the left. He nudged me and said to let the passengers know that we would be flying over Lake Mead and the Hoover Dam on our descent. I made a quick announcement without thinking. Someone in the back of the aircraft filed a safety report with the FAA saying I broke sterile cockpit procedure when I made the announcement. I do not remember the exact altitude I made the announcement or if we were or were not in sterile cockpit at that point. I should have been more attentive and payed closer attention to our altitude and if we were in sterile cockpit. Another safety report filed on the same flight arose because the three of us took a picture together while we were cruising across the country. This picture was taken out of sterile while we had the autopilot and auto-thrust engaged. I have been counseled by the FAA and they have said that the picture is not a big deal since it happened out of sterile cockpit. They refreshed me on our sterile cockpit procedure and I will work to uphold that in the future. Again; I do not know if we were above or below 10;000 ft. I just made a quick PA without thinking. To correct this I will work on being more attentive in the future.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.