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]

// Quote I am saying that given the elements I have today, I can only say that he deliberately allowed the loss of altitude. It's not a loss that is totally abnormal, 1,000ft per minute; but he had no reason to do it, or not to allow captain in to cabin, he had no reason not to explain to air traffic control why he was losing altitude
The theory that he had a health attack? Apparently he was breathing normally, so this is not someone having a heart attack, for example.
I think that the victims only realised what was happening at the last minute and I think that he voluntarily refused to open the door and turned the button to bring the plane down. //

[ladybirder]

He had only had few hundred flying hours and worked for them for a few months.

[Ken4155]

Just been on the news that co-pilot deliberately crashed the plane. The B******

[Gromit]

Ladybirder,

613 flying hours. Since 2013.

[ladybirder]

Screams only heard at last moment as it hit the mountain at 700km/hr.

[ladybirder]

Thank you Gromit.

[ladybirder]

This must have been lots of peoples' unspoken fear. It was certainly mine but so hoping it wasn't true.

[Ellipsis]

> Is there no way at all that the crew can access the cockpit in an emergency?

According to an interview on the R4 Today programme this morning, there IS such a system. It is not widely publicised, but pilots do have means of getting back onto flight decks ... unless the people on those flight decks are actively preventing them from doing so.

[ladybirder]

Co-pilot 28 years old.

[RATTER15]

I have little problem with suicide, but why take others with you, that is so sick, one would imagine that the pilot was trying to get back at someone and maybe killing all those people will have an effect on someone left behind?

[tamborine]

MH370 asked to change course due to weather. There was severe storms over Spain during this german flight.

Would the weather cause these disasters?

[ladybirder]

Weather is said to have been fine Tambo.

[ladybirder]

There's a second black box to be looked at yet so plenty more info to come.

[delboy3]

Peter Pedant, despite your username you've got some facts mixed up. The 'Concordski' crash was at the Paris Air Show 1973. You're thinking of the Aeroflot Airbus which crashed in Siberia in 1995 with the pilot's 15-year-old son at the controls. And the Staines crash was 1972.

[237SJ]

I have been saying for years that this could happen (if true). Wait for the pilot to leave the flight deck, don`t let him/her back in and crash the plane. I expect the US rule about there having to be two people on the flight deck at all times will be adopted by the CAA now. I also think that when pilots have their medicals, a psychological assessment should be included.

[DTCwordfan]

//I also think that when pilots have their medicals, a psychological assessment should be included.//

I would have thought that was standard practice already at somewhere in the process, be it the medical or on flight simulator tests - do we have anyone on AB who is, or has been, a commercial pilot?

[delboy3]

Clanad, over to you!

[237SJ]

DT - they don`t and believe me, I`ve known some nutters in my time..

[ladybirder]

Co-pilot deliberately and manually activated the descend button which has to be turned several times. No reason to think this is a terrorist attack. Co-pilot's family has now left Marseille.

[DTCwordfan]

I don't blame them for their own safety, Ladybirder they must feel AWFUL......