After pushback from the gate; a B777 flight crew encountered a significant weather delay and shut do...

Narrative:

We were out into a holding area due to extensive ground delays for weather. We were parked with about a dozen aircraft; parking break set; APU on; engines off. Captain elected to permit passengers up to the cockpit while we waited out the storm. I have observed this practice several times in my career; but all prior to the merger. I do not know if this was an accepted practice currently. I did not object to the captain's decision at that moment.after thinking about it; I seem to have recalled a pilot bulletin several years ago that may have addressed this pre-merger. I was unable to remember if such a bulletin existed for sure or what its contents were. I asked the relief pilot to help me search for anything pertaining to it in the fom or electronic flight bag (efb).while researching the documents; it appeared that things would start moving in the near future so the captain cleared the flight deck and I was not able to find a valid reference on the issue before preparing to leave again. I have spent quite a bit of time searching for anything related to this practice or prohibition of it; but have not been successful.I would like guidance on this issue should I encounter it in the future and perhaps a reference to the policy if it exists one way or the other. In retrospect; especially since this practice was not prohibited at my legacy; I am wondering if we have current guidance. I became increasingly uncomfortable on the flight deck; but had no way to bring it up with the captain at the moment without doing it in a public environment.in retrospect; I think I should have spoken up and suggested we research the issue since it would have been the most conservative choice and we had time to do it since we were facing a significant stop.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: After pushback from the gate; a B777 Flight Crew encountered a significant weather delay and shut down the engines to wait. The Captain elected to allow the passengers up to view the cockpit. The next day the crew discovered that this practice is not permitted by the FOM.

Narrative: We were out into a holding area due to extensive ground delays for weather. We were parked with about a dozen aircraft; parking break set; APU on; engines off. Captain elected to permit passengers up to the cockpit while we waited out the storm. I have observed this practice several times in my career; but all prior to the merger. I do not know if this was an accepted practice currently. I did not object to the Captain's decision at that moment.After thinking about it; I seem to have recalled a pilot bulletin several years ago that may have addressed this pre-merger. I was unable to remember if such a bulletin existed for sure or what its contents were. I asked the relief pilot to help me search for anything pertaining to it in the FOM or Electronic Flight Bag (EFB).While researching the documents; it appeared that things would start moving in the near future so the Captain cleared the flight deck and I was not able to find a valid reference on the issue before preparing to leave again. I have spent quite a bit of time searching for anything related to this practice or prohibition of it; but have not been successful.I would like guidance on this issue should I encounter it in the future and perhaps a reference to the policy if it exists one way or the other. In retrospect; especially since this practice was not prohibited at my legacy; I am wondering if we have current guidance. I became increasingly uncomfortable on the flight deck; but had no way to bring it up with the Captain at the moment without doing it in a public environment.In retrospect; I think I should have spoken up and suggested we research the issue since it would have been the most conservative choice and we had time to do it since we were facing a significant stop.

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.

Attributes
ACN	1374230
Time
Date	201607
Local Time Of Day	1801-2400
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	B777 Undifferentiated or Other Model
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Taxi
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Pilot Not Flying First Officer
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 80 Flight Crew Total 10954 Flight Crew Type 2581
Person 2
Function	Captain
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 240 Flight Crew Total 11177 Flight Crew Type 859
Events
Anomaly	Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy

After pushback from the gate; a B777 flight crew encountered a significant weather delay and shut down the engines to wait. The captain elected to allow the passengers up to view the cockpit. The next day the crew discovered that this practice is not permitted by the fom.