A320 German-wings accident in Southern France

[Quickstatus]

Given the conjecture with MH and now this - they might have to start thinking about having three pilots as a safety net e.g. two in the coughpit at all times.

I have seen some US airlines have a cabin crew swop into the coughpit when a pilot wants to go to the restroom.

 

[Mattg]

The thought that it could be another pilot suicide is terrible if true. I would never have expected this on a Germanwings flight but I guess this proves it could happen to anyone. This twist opens up a brand new can of worms and if it's proven to be pilot suicide there will probably be a serious re-think surrounding aviation procedures, systems, policies etc.

If the pilot was trying to crash the plane, would the Airbus computer trying to limit the rate of descent explain why it took so long for the plane to hit the ground?

 

[amaroo]

Looks like the Air Marshals need to sit in the jump seat.

 

[Quickstatus]

Looks like the Air Marshals need to sit in the jump seat.

More ammo for airplane manufacturers to push industry toward drones.

 

[Mattg]

Interesting that Lufthansa/Germanwings hasn't released any information about the pilots. All they have said is that "the captain was a 10-year veteran with more than 6,000 hours of flying time in A320s." They haven't said anything about the first officer.

 

[Buzzard]

I'm not liking the latest news about one of the flight crew being locked out.
We should all hope that this is not some sinister plot. I shudder just thinking about it, those poor souls.

 

[robd]

I'm not liking the latest news about one of the flight crew being locked out.
We should all hope that this is not some sinister plot. I shudder just thinking about it, those poor souls.

I feel sick.

 

[RooFlyer]

Sorry, the main thing that comes to mind is, if the newspaper report is correct, and some-one involved in the investigation is leaking details, then its very unprofessional, to put it mildly. How many people would typically be in the room when the audio file is listened to?

 

[opusman]

How can any of the flight crew be locked out anyway? Isn't the only lock a keypad to which they would have the code?

 

[badseed]

How can any of the flight crew be locked out anyway? Isn't the only lock a keypad to which they would have the code?

Allegedly, there are 3 settings on the door locking mechanism: Open, Norm (Locked but able to open via keypad from the cabin), and Fully Locked (not able to be opened from the cabin).

There's a very informative video on Youtube that describes / re-anacts the Airbus reinforced coughpit door operations: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixEHV7c3VXs

 

[QF WP]

This doesn't give all of the information, so I can understand if there aren't photos and detailed descriptions of them, given the sensitivity.
http://www.smartcockpit.com/docs/A320-Doors.pdf

One article reports issues with A320 coughpit door: http://www.sps-aviation.com/story_issue.asp?Article=1276

On May 14, 2013, on a flight from Delhi to Bengaluru with a full load of passengers onboard, the Commander of the aircraft could not re-enter the coughpit after he took a break to visit the restroom. Operation of the door for entry into the coughpit is software-controlled and the locking mechanism functions in response to a code known to those authorised to enter the coughpit. However, the locking mechanism can also be deactivated by operating a circuit breaker. Apparently, in the episode in question, none of the systems worked. Mercifully, the co-pilot, though junior to the Commander who was locked out, was also a trained Captain. He was able to carry out a diversion and land safely at Bhopal where the engineers were able to fix the snag. Although the episode had a happy ending, it had the potential of turning into a disaster if there had been another concurrent emergency onboard. The response by Air India was rather casual as if the event was inconsequential even though nearly 200 lives were at stake. Bizarre indeed!

This type of issue can be fixed, with a lot of input from Airbus.

I'm hoping this is the case, rather than the alternative - which like others here, doesn't bear contemplation .

 

[jb747]

Obviously this is a report that we all hope is wrong.

But, the story does not match up with the way the doors operate (at least the 3 different doors that I've used). There are two different audio alarms that should have been heard associated with the door. TBA I guess.

Same with the Air India story. Why didn't the pilot in the coughpit just reach back and manually open the door? It isn't totally electronic.

 

[Mogul]

Didn't Air Asia only have one pilot in the coughpit as well.

 

[jb747]

Didn't Air Asia only have one pilot in the coughpit as well.

I think that's just internet rumour.

 

[Quickstatus]

Didn't Air Asia only have one pilot in the coughpit as well.

AF477 commander in chief pilot exited for rest break only to discover that the Juniors in charge successfully confused the airplane..

 

[QF WP]

A person of an FB page I sometimes freqeunt has asked me to ask you jb747:

[Does [jb747] think there may have been either an inadvertent thrust reverser activation, or software glitch which caused the speed brakes to activate? The other possibility I can think of is they hit the Q-Coffin number, didn't know what was going on and couldn't recover.

 

[jb747]

A person of an FB page I sometimes freqeunt has asked me to ask you jb747:

...think there may have been either an inadvertent thrust reverser activation, or software glitch which caused the speed brakes to activate? The other possibility I can think of is they hit the Q-Coffin number, didn't know what was going on and couldn't recover.

When I commented earlier, I made the statement that the aircraft was 'stable' in the descent. The speeds matched pretty closely to a normal descent mode, and the heading (track) was constant. That's a huge hint, that rules out 90% of the theories.

Speedbrakes will eventually be overpowered by the engines. Whilst it's a failure mode that I've never heard of, the speed would initially decay, until the pilots allowed the aircraft to descend. They would remain at a lower speed (no need to be fast). The rate of descent would never reach 3,000 fpm, and would show a constant reduction, until at some point in the low 20s, it would level out.

Reversers have many protections on them, and are individually controlled. There is no failure mode that could make them both deploy. A single deployment, might even be controllable, but it would not give a constant heading, nor stable descent rate.

The other comment is gibberish.

 

[QF WP]

Thanks jb747, I have passed onto him. I had no idea what he was talking about either, merely being the messenger

 

[Archphoto]

I have seen some US airlines have a cabin crew swop into the coughpit when a pilot wants to go to the restroom.

CX seem to do this also - was on a flight BKK-SIN last year; cabin crew took place of pilot or 1st officer when he used the restroom.

 

[JohnK]

Really sad news.

And I know this sounds irrational but this is starting to happen too often for my liking.