Breaking: Germanwings Pilot Was Locked Out of Cockpit Before Crash in France

Looks like they are pinning this on the co-pilot. Deliberate crash for reasons unknown as yet. Ref Marseille prosecutor, live on Sky News NOW

I suspect at this point that this wasn't a terrorist attack but is the result of all the new "safeties" they are building into planes as a result of terrorism. Why I think this:

1. The plane hit a mountain, not a populated area. This suggests to me that it wasn't an attack. A terrorist would have wanted to crash the plane into something valuable.

2. At this point it seems that one of the pilots got locked out of the cockpit - IMO it's very possible that the other pilot that was supposed to let him in had a stroke, or a heart attack, or whatever and couldn't respond. The fact that the pilots can't gain entry to their own cockpit by themselves is a rather obvious and serious security flaw.

3. I have been reading all sorts of things about the computers in these planes. That if something goes wrong they can take over and it becomes very difficult for the pilots to control the plane manually. I can't help but wonder if the computer played any role in the destruction of the plane. I wouldn't trust a computer to fly my plane... would you? It's also very possible that with the pilot gone, the co-pilot might not have been able to override the computer by himself. In fact if the computer thought there was a problem it could have locked down the cockpit as a security measure - preventing the co-pilot from letting the pilot in! Who knows? I don't know how much control the computer would have in these situations.

IMO they shouldn't be relying on a locked door to protect the pilots. They should be armed and able to defend themselves. Whether it be with guns, or tasers, or knives, I don't care but they should be armed with something. And able to freely enter and exit the cockpit.

I have doubts that maintenance or reliability had anything to do with it - the airline industry keep their planes pretty well maintained. I suspect this more a result of excessive safeties denying the pilots access and control of their own plane. If this is the case, I wonder if they will even admit it to the public? I think there are people in our governments that won't want to admit that the protections they have put in place since 9/11 caused this.

But it's also too early to tell for sure. I hope they make the contents of the flight recorder public - I want to hear what was going on.

a reply to: Zaphod58

I don't buy that he was dealing with problems. Descent rate was not that high. No attempt to alter course. Convenient that the FDR is missing it's chip now. Hmmmmm.

FO that was apparently still breathing. No acknowledgement to ATC nor Captain trying to smash down door.

This reeks of either suicide, or the FO was some type of sleeper for a radical muslim group and this was his mission.

Also confirmed that the co pilot was German. They then went on to say not a terrorist though - despite no evidence shown. In terms of the co pilots breathing they said it was normal and not heavy. Press have asked for the co pilots religion but they will not confirm these details at this early stage. The same applies for ethnicity.

So far we have a co-pilot and pilot having a normal flight with no issues. Pilot leaves the cockpit then co-pilot starts making a purposeful action to force decent at a typical rate for landing. The copilot was not responding despite the pilots frantic attempts to call. The co-pilot had just over 600hrs flight time and joined this company straight after training. (BBC live coverage French Prosecutor)

What's the surprise here? Some of you wished the pilot was some bearded Muslim called Abdul or Muhammad. You would have been jumping up and down with joy screaming "YES, ISLAM again, YES!"

I think the latest news that the FO was responsible for locking out the Captain and INITing a descent is cause for a brand new thread. This one is getting crazy. a reply to: Freenrgy2

Given the confirmation of the pilot of the Airbus being locked out of the cockpit, and given confirmation of a five minute automatic refusal of entry upon pushing the control of the door lock, it has been reported that the decent took eight minutes.

Where did the other three minutes of cabin access time go? And what stopped the pilot from accessing the cabin during that three minutes with his access code?

Source

He revealed that the co-pilot - named locally as 28-year-old German Andreas Günter Lubitz - locked his captain out after the senior officer leaves the cockpit.

At that point, the co-pilot uses the flight monitoring system to put the plane into descent - something that can only be done manually.

The captain can then be heard asking for access. He knock ands asks him to open and starts banging.
All the time, you can hear the co-pilot breathing, Mr Brice revealed.

originally posted by: twohawks
Given the confirmation of the pilot of the Airbus being locked out of the cockpit, and given confirmation of a five minute automatic refusal of entry upon pushing the control of the door lock, it has been reported that the decent took eight minutes.

Where did the other three minutes of cabin access time go? And what stopped the pilot from aging access during that three minutes with his access code?

Just hitting lock again when the buzzer went off.

originally posted by: kidcraig

originally posted by: twohawks
Given the confirmation of the pilot of the Airbus being locked out of the cockpit, and given confirmation of a five minute automatic refusal of entry upon pushing the control of the door lock, it has been reported that the decent took eight minutes.

Where did the other three minutes of cabin access time go? And what stopped the pilot from aging access during that three minutes with his access code?

Just hitting lock again when the buzzer went off.

Is that fact and is the locking mechanism capable of an immediate reset as you say? Or is this conjecture?

a reply to: twohawks

I believe he left the flight deck to use the toilet, that could take 3 minutes. Then he tries to re-enter the flight deck but is locked out for 5 minutes = 8 minutes to crash.

Cheers
Robbie

Co pilot killed everyone on purpose. His breathing was normal until impact. Could he have ties with ISIS, but then he could have planted the plane in a City, therefore I rule this out.

I just heard this is a mass murder investigation, how awful and sick.

Even if it was suicide, IMO it is still a security flaw that the pilot cannot gain entry to the cockpit by himself. At the least he should have an all-access swipe card. And also a weapon so he can protect himself. The co-pilot may be to blame, but so are the dumb security measures, like an impenetrable locked door that can only be opened from the inside.

But I don't fly or ever want to. Between the TSA and stuff like this you would have to knock me out and drag me onto a plane.

Being reported on the bbc the co pilot wanted to destroy the plane.

www.bbc.co.uk...

I'm going by what Airbus says. So I believe it. There is a 30 second delay between outside access attempt and when the door would unlock. Seeing how the crew was not incipacitated he just had to flick to lock. No access.

a reply to: ziplock9000

stop making stupid assumptions from almost no info

I wish my assumptions were stupid, but unfortunately I am the opposite and so were my assumptions. I stand ready for your apology.

V

Sad thing is, with money, you can buy yourself all the way into the right-hand seat of an airliner. EasyJet has a pay-to-fly scheme.

Germanwings Airbus A320 crash: Copilot ‘wanted to destroy plane’

Interesting revelations.

originally posted by: Boeing777
Sad thing is, with money, you can buy yourself all the way into the right-hand seat of an airliner. EasyJet has a pay-to-fly scheme.

You know what's even more sad? That I've struggled to get as far as I have in my flight training when there are screwed up individuals who have made it only to kill themselves along with 150 others.