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I've seen some insensitive posts in my time and this one is high up there.
Totally.
Quote:
Originally Posted by so954
The co-pilot of the doomed Germanwings A320 “voluntarily” put the aircraft into a dive and was alive until the moment of impact, the Marseilles prosecutor said citing a transcript of the last 30 minutes of the cockpit voice recorder.
The problem here seems to be that once the Lock selector is enabled, the door will remain locked for between 5 and 20 minutes according to the flight manual.
However, the scenario you've described doesn't seem likely because slumping over the selector would have to be a sideways motion. If the PF became incapacitated for whatever reason, he/she would simply slump in the seat as illustrated in the video.
If the cockpit door was locked deliberately by the PF after the FO had left the flight deck, then it would seem more likely to be a CFIT incident with pilot suicide as the main factor.
From the video it looks to me like it would be pretty easy to accidentally flip the switch into the locked position. Especially if the pilot is having some kind of issues.
According to what they released this morning, they said they could hear the pilot "breathing normally" for 10 minutes until impact, while they could hear the pilot trying to break the door down eventually.
One, that had to be some chilling tape to listen to and two, that would seem to rule out him having some sort of involuntary movements like from a seizure.
I suppose it's possible that the pilot had some medical condition like very low blood sugar that can make someone confused without actually passing out, and locked the door from the panel instead of opening it when there was pounding on it. Maybe he then in confusion thought that he had to immediately lower the altitude for some reason, thinking his problem was from depressurization? Or that he was landing normally at destination?
However, at this time, I'm putting down my quarter on the pilot deliberately committing suicide for whatever reason, whether personal or terrorist. But on the personal level, he'd have had to be a total sociopath to want to take so many people with him ......... and if it was terrorism, why didn't he get a message out saying so? It would have been wasted in it's purpose of creating terror if it was never found out what happened or who did it.
Furthermore, it probably wouldn't have been a passenger forcing his way in or getting let in as part of a plot, since the other pilot wasn't concerned at first, just tapping at the door. If someone strange had gone into the cockpit, the other crew members would have noticed and raised the alarm.
Except this seems to be creating adequate terror, with various flight crews refusing to fly now due to this incident.
The co-pilot has been named as Andreas Lubitz, 28 from a small town in Germany called Montabaur in Rhineland-Palatinate according to French prosecutors.
His full name is though is Andreas Guenter Lubitz. I note from his background that his medical designation was due to expire in June this year. I wonder if that has a bearing on the case.
I remember all the debates about strengthening cockpit doors after 9/11. They wanted to make it impossible, or at least extremely difficult for a hijacker to break in. Now we see it even keeps a pilot out in an emergency. There definitely needs to be a way in that can't be locked out from the inside. Either that or a lav inside the cockpit that can't be locked.
I remember all the debates about strengthening cockpit doors after 9/11. They wanted to make it impossible, or at least extremely difficult for a hijacker to break in. Now we see it even keeps a pilot out in an emergency. There definitely needs to be a way in that can't be locked out from the inside. Either that or a lav inside the cockpit that can't be locked.
In addition to everything mentioned, I find it highly strange the pilot left (presumably for the bathroom) on a 90-min flight. I mean who knows, maybe he wasn't feeling well, or any number of things - but guys like this are highly robotical and are mentally programmed to not be fickle and need to go tinkle during a 90 min flight. The odds of the pilot leaving cockpit during a 90 min flight are probably 1%, and at that very moment, an unstable co pilot takes advantage of a situation and crashes the plane?
In addition to everything mentioned, I find it highly strange the pilot left (presumably for the bathroom) on a 90-min flight.
That is an excellent point. A scenario where the co pilot is murderously depressed, and he flies around for weeks on short flights waiting for the pilot to go to the bathroom is implausible.
Pilots go to the bathroom all the time, even on 90 minute flights. If you've flown a couple legs, and didn't see a bathroom near the gate you were parked and you have to be airborne within a few minutes (add in if you had to grab lunch, or another drink) you may be pressed for time. Often, the aircraft lav is the only place you have time to relieve yourself.
Sometimes I'd go a week w/o a fellow pilot using the lav, but other times it seemed like the guys went every other leg.
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