A320 flight crew reported receiving a ground delay after taxi and elected to shut down and allow pas...

Narrative:

After pushback and during taxi; ground control advised us that we had a 1:10 minute ground delay for our flight due to construction at [destination airport]. Ground control gave us a place to pull over and we shut down both engines and left the APU running. After finishing checklists and discussing the delay and our ample fuel status; the ca asked if I was okay with opening the cockpit door. I replied 'absolutely.' so; as I was communicating our status with dispatch via ACARS; several passengers wanted to look in the cockpit. The captain and I agreed that this was a fine idea as we thought it would be great for passengers to have something of interest to enjoy while we were waiting on the ramp for an hour or so. Several adults and children came up to the cockpit to take a look around and ask questions with some folks taking pictures; etc. It was really enjoyable handing out wings to the kids and talking to parents about [our company] and aviation in general. About 30 minutes passed and ground control advised us that our delay had been shortened and asked us to get ready for departure. We had all passengers sit down; secured the cockpit door and performed our preflight checklists as per SOP.we took off and landed without incident. The flight itself was uneventful.the reason I am reporting this is; during the cruise phase of the flight the captain and I talked about the recent [industry problems] and wondered if any changes had been made to SOP concerning photos; etc. I looked in the fom for anything concerning cockpit access on the ground and found the last sentence of a paragraph; which states that you should not allow cockpit access after you have pushed back; even during a ground delay with engines shut down; which was our exact situation. It actually states that you should not conduct cockpit tours; etc. Which is pretty much exactly what we did. So we talked about that and decided we had made a mistake and should report it. We both talked about learning a new lesson in the fom. I've had people up in the cockpit many times at the gate; so I just deferred to that way of thinking. It was quite enjoyable interacting with our passengers but I realize now that I should have referenced the fom first.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A320 flight crew reported receiving a ground delay after taxi and elected to shut down and allow passengers to visit the cockpit. Once airborne the crew decided to check the FOM and found that the practice was no longer allowed.

Narrative: After pushback and during taxi; ground control advised us that we had a 1:10 minute ground delay for our flight due to construction at [destination airport]. Ground control gave us a place to pull over and we shut down both engines and left the APU running. After finishing checklists and discussing the delay and our ample fuel status; the CA asked if I was okay with opening the cockpit door. I replied 'absolutely.' So; as I was communicating our status with dispatch via ACARS; several passengers wanted to look in the cockpit. The Captain and I agreed that this was a fine idea as we thought it would be great for passengers to have something of interest to enjoy while we were waiting on the ramp for an hour or so. Several adults and children came up to the cockpit to take a look around and ask questions with some folks taking pictures; etc. It was really enjoyable handing out wings to the kids and talking to parents about [our company] and aviation in general. About 30 minutes passed and ground control advised us that our delay had been shortened and asked us to get ready for departure. We had all passengers sit down; secured the cockpit door and performed our preflight checklists as per SOP.We took off and landed without incident. The flight itself was uneventful.The reason I am reporting this is; during the cruise phase of the flight the Captain and I talked about the recent [industry problems] and wondered if any changes had been made to SOP concerning photos; etc. I looked in the FOM for anything concerning cockpit access on the ground and found the last sentence of a paragraph; which states that you should not allow cockpit access after you have pushed back; even during a ground delay with engines shut down; which was our exact situation. It actually states that you should not conduct cockpit tours; etc. Which is pretty much exactly what we did. So we talked about that and decided we had made a mistake and should report it. We both talked about learning a new lesson in the FOM. I've had people up in the cockpit many times at the gate; so I just deferred to that way of thinking. It was quite enjoyable interacting with our passengers but I realize now that I should have referenced the FOM first.

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	1468009
Time
Date	201707
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	A320
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Taxi
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	First Officer Pilot Not Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Experience	Flight Crew Type 581
Person 2
Function	Pilot Flying Captain
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Experience	Flight Crew Type 790
Events
Anomaly	Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Flight Deck / Cabin / Aircraft Event Other / Unknown

A320 flight crew reported receiving a ground delay after taxi and elected to shut down and allow passengers to visit the cockpit. Once airborne the crew decided to check the fom and found that the practice was no longer allowed.