Germanwings Plane Crash: Pilot 'locked Out Of Cockpit'

[naomi24]

//One of the two pilots of the Germanwings plane that crashed in the French Alps was locked out of the cockpit, according to reports.

Early findings from the cockpit voice recorder suggest the pilot made desperate efforts to get back in, sources close to the investigation say.//

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-32062278

Is there no way at all that the crew can access the cockpit in an emergency? I wonder if the pilot left in control suffered a heart attack?

[Gromit]

After 9/11 the doors to the cockpit were made very secure.
Unfortunately, it makes the suicide pilot scenario a lot easier to accomplished. The Malaysian jet last year has all the signs of a suicide mission.

It is one of those unintented consequences that the rush to anti terror has brought about.

[Hopkirk]

AOG a windscreen blow out could cause the pilots to lose cosciousness due to lack of oxygen.

The reason the aircraft is in small bits is that it was probably doing about 400 mph when it hit the mountain.

[ladybirder]

237, then we agree, two pilots.

[DTCwordfan]

Shortly after the introduction of secure doors, there was an incident on an Air Afrique or Air Mali plane, the Embraer flying from Bamako to Nouakchott. The pilot went back into the cabin to use the toilet (at the rear of that plane) and then he spotted a friend of his in the plane, the seat next to him empty. Drops into it and a "Comment ca va, Chef"........

Fifteen or twenty minutes later, the co-pilot wonders where his captain is and decides to go back to get him, the plane on autopilot. Walks out of the cockpit, the door closes, he's forgotten the auto-lock and they now have a plane careering on with no pilots in there.

Then, they carried an emergency axe and had to get it out to use it on the door to reenter.........wonderful confidence-building for the passengers aboard, no doubt.

I wonder if the systems exist to land the plane on autopilot or even fly it from a distance......I have been on several flights where they have used autopilot on landing, esp in fog, and they are usually the smoothest, the plane coming right down on its parabolic curve.....

[237SJ]

//or even fly it from a distance// That`s a scary scenario - it would mean having remote access to the aircraft`s onboard computer and you don`t want that.

[DTCwordfan]

Why not as a fail safe system? - no different than having an access to a drone with missiles on...

[DTCwordfan]

- or conducting open heart surgery in Joburg, the surgeon in London - and they have done that.

[237SJ]

It wouldn`t be failsafe. It could be abused by terrorists hacking into aircraft systems. There has already been speculation about that and the guy who was going to do a talk about it some time ago mysteriously "snuffed it". A friend of mine who is involved with setting up onboard systems on new aircraft said that it`s not possible though.

[vulcan42]

There was a man being interviewed this morning on the BBC, I didn't get his name or expertise but he said there is a way to get into the cockpit, Obviously for security reasons he didn't go into details.

[237SJ]

vulcan - yes there is.

[Hopkirk]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3012053/Pilot-doomed-Germanwings-jet-locked-cockpit-crash.html

[DTCwordfan]

//A friend of mine who is involved with setting up onboard systems on new aircraft said that it`s not possible though.//

Don't believe it...what's the difference, other than scale, between a drone aircraft and an A320. If they can do it for cars, trucks and buses, surely aircraft are possible - and, yes, accepting that there needs to be very tight security control as to illegal hacking, for whatever purposes. I'm not advocating pilotless flights on commercial aircraft- yet.

[ladybirder]

Sky News now Marseille Prosecutor saying co-pilot appears to have crashed plane deliberately.

[ladybirder]

Co-pilot's breathing seemed to be normal.

[SeaJayPea]

This isn't the first incident where cabin doors being locked has caused a problem. See below.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helios_Airways_Flight_522

[-Talbot-]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-32063587

[ladybirder]

Pilot is heard saying to co-pilot "I am leaving you in charge" as he leaves cockpit.

[DTCwordfan]

Now that doesn't surprise me, if true, ladybirder....they are going to have to think this security door question through again. There was an article on the news not long ago about the use of security chips embedded in the arm within offices in Sweden - perhaps a solution lies in this?

I've found a Beeb article on this: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-31042477

[ladybirder]

Andreas Lubitz is name of co-pilot.

[DTCwordfan]

And ladybirder, this could play into the hands of Mikey's earlier contribution, the one that Talbot went after, one of the possible scenarios being that there was a suicide involved and, of course, until they recover the black boxes, we will never know on that one.

The 'so early in flight' comment - remember the pilots are on duty and out at the aircraft quite a bit in advance of the passengers to carry out their checks, the coffee catching up, perhaps?