The whole passenger thing is a can of worms. So what if there's a second pilot onboard. Is he (or she, it could be Patty Wagstaff) a passenger? Not sure how it works in the US but skydivers here are not passengers, neither are they crew. This was highlighted for me during an audit by the aviation authority. He takes a look at my licence and tells me that my medical has expired. I said no it hasn't, it's only expired for single pilot public transport operations carrying passengers. Skydive flying is 'aerial work' and skydivers including tandem passengers are not passengers. Luckily I knew the rules better than he did.
The irony is that we've just got an Air Operators Certificate and will fly passengers soon. So I will have to renew the medical every six months. I can drop some skydivers then land, put in the seats and take off with the same people minus the parachutes. They'll now be passengers in the same plane with the same pilot as earlier but I'll be employed by a different company operating under entirely different rules.
