When you take an escort mission with behemoth atlas trident or constellation, ask the player if he wants to join as an escort ship or as a gunner.
Let him choose the ship he wants to be gunner or make it random.

Then you would not be escorting.

-1. You could just AFK endless missions.

-1
if the npc ship gets stuck then the player will be stuck. Can't explode since it's not the player's ship and can't undock because the player doesn't have a ship.

-1
@meridian you can leave a ship where you are a gunner. you'll be ported back to where you entered his ship.

+1 Add more gameplay! Just don't pay gunners unless they get kills.

This could be fun for noobs and an easy PK for pirates hunting the NPC convoys. It also would allow players to in a sense, hitch-hike to a different station without taking any possessions with them.

@ARF in that case it should be a new mission. instead of escort "gunner needed" or alike. also it should pay less than the escort itself.

Good idea. Though that might get tricky for the game to decide when to launch the convoy.

+1 to ARF's idea, as its own mission.