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They recovered the black box, so the speculation will soon end, and as we've noticed from news reports more information is coming out by the moment.
Withholding the name of the flight crew could be to protect their family from a bunch of insensitive news reporters gathering outside their home trying to determine what type of character their dead spouse had, how much training, etc...The answer "He/She was a great pilot, and absolutely LOVED flying. He/She prided themselves on safety and the well being of the passengers was his/her top priority!"
With regards to a "cockpit lav" I've always thought that's a fantastic idea...but doubling down on the number of lavs (which increases weight, and decreases useful load) would be opposed by airlines all over the world.
I know with my airline we were required to have one pilot on supplemental oxygen anytime the other pilot left the controls and we were above 25,000 feet. What's strange though, is that if there was a rapid decompression the pilot at the controls would have either had his mask on, or been close enough to the quick donning oxygen mask to have had a better shot at donning the mask than the pilot in the lavatory. From reports, the pilot who was locked out of the cockpit was able to bang on the door numerous times with no response. If O2 had been low, I'd have expected the other pilot to be passed out as well. It would however explain the controlled rapid descent, and if the pilot flying didn't don his oxygen mask prior to initiating the descent it'd be possible for him to have started the descent prior to passing out.
I've been out of the biz a while, but our Memory Item for a rapid cabin depressurization was.
Oxygen Mask - Don
Emergency Descent - Initiate
And the memory item for Emergency Descent was:
Thrust Levers - Idle
Speed Brakes - Deploy
Airspeed - 250 KIAS
Landing Gear - Down
MEA - Check
In other words, after being out of the biz for six years, these procedures were beat into your head so much you still remember them even after leaving the jet behind.
I tend to assume the investigators know much more than what they have told. If they have released (so soon) such an astounding piece of information about one pilot being locked out, then what and how much else they must know now...
Occam's Razor is being terribly abused in recent posts. The simplest explanation is NOT that the co-pilot suffered a crippling medical emergency moments after the pilot leaves the cockpit! In any case, as I understand it, the Airbus is smarter than to let an unconscious pilot fly it into the ground! No, the simplest explanation is that the co-pilot locked the cockpit, disabled the autopilot AND the traction control and flew the plane into the mountainside. Somehow I suspect continuous video monitoring of aircraft cockpits is coming sooner rather than later. And did you see the condition of the black boxes? That may have been intentional. I think my idea of beaming the data up to a satellite for cloud storage is also coming to an airliner near you.
Yes, but they don't have them in there. I don't care if they have to wear diapers, just don't let this happen again.
Well that's one way to make people quit en masse.
Lots of misinformation in this thread and on the news about the doors, their procedures and the security of them. I won't elaborate further as it's SSI. As GCSTroop said you'd be shocked at just how wrong media gets it. Even their so-called experts are getting things blatantly wrong. Just take what they say with a grain of salt.
Occam's Razor is being terribly abused in recent posts. The simplest explanation is NOT that the co-pilot suffered a crippling medical emergency moments after the pilot leaves the cockpit! In any case, as I understand it, the Airbus is smarter than to let an unconscious pilot fly it into the ground! No, the simplest explanation is that the co-pilot locked the cockpit, disabled the autopilot AND the traction control and flew the plane into the mountainside.
I agree. The medical emergency explanation is the most innocent or "benign" one, rather than the simplest one.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Leisesturm
And did you see the condition of the black boxes? That may have been intentional.
What do you mean? The pilot intentionally crashed in such a way as to cause maximum damage to the black boxes?
They have released some details about the pilot, no name. Absolutely nothing about the co-pilot. I find this to be very strange considering that they have already released the names of many of the passengers.
I think this is very telling IMO. Draw your own conclusions. My begins with a T.
I've only seen like, five or six passengers named. They are very stingy with information.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Danbo1957
Oh man, here we go; as I suggested in an earlier post...
This is typical as they prosecute everything over there, even if it was simply pilot error they'd lay charges.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ssww
Wouldn't it be better if the pilots have their own lavatory inside the cockpit?
I had the same thought. But then the offending pilot would just lock the other in the toilet and the passengers would be none the wiser, not that it would matter anyway. I think they need to go back to a crew of three in the cockpit. At least one of the pilots could put up a fight.
These examples of loss of cabin pressure resulted in crashes after fuel was depleted. Not the case here. No distress in the 10 minutes descent. One of the pilots still alive, desperately trying to open cockpit door. Not an oxygen issue. Either pilot alone in cockpit slumped over controls pushing down the plane to the ground or intentionally crashing. No?
This is the only thing I can find about an Airbus cockpit door and according to it there is a way to get into the cockpit in case of crew incapacitation (see 4 minute mark). The only thing is, it doesn't appear that it would work if the door is locked from the inside.
They should, and they should require on all major flights for a flight attendant to be in the cockpit if a pilot goes out, and they should require that the door be in the normal position so that the pilot can use a code to get back in to the cockpit.
I think that would be a really bad idea. If a high-jacker / terrorist decided to try something at that point, they could gain entry, and there would be nothing the person in the cockpit could do to stop it.
Personally I think they should move toward making airliner cockpits totally inaccessible from the cabin. The cockpit should have a separate entrance, it's own bathroom and be totally self-sufficient.
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