Passengers screamed as captain took axe to cockpit door

www.thetimes.co.uk ^ | 03-27-2015 | Staff

[Red Badger]

As they plunged towards their deaths, one of the last things seen by passengers and cabin crew near the front of the Germanwings Airbus A320 was their captain, Patrick Sonderheimer, desperately trying to smash down the door of the cockpit.

For several minutes on Tuesday morning the airliner had been inexplicably descending from cruising altitude towards the Alps with its engines idle.

[Red Badger]

Where did he get an AXE?................

[ken5050]

first aid kit, silly..

[Red Badger]

MORE HERE:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/germanwings-captain-patrick-sondenheimer-tried-to-break-into-locked-cockpit-door-with-an-axe-as-plane-was-descending-10138492.html

[Red Badger]

Must have been a Emergency Jihadi Kit..............

[Cowboy Bob]

Here’s Johnny....

[left that other site]

If that is the truth, then the Captain is a true hero.

[2banana]

Never leave a muslim alone in a cockpit...

[MrB]

He just didn’t realize quite fast enough what was actually going on. Not faulting him - who would think that that’s what was happening?

[caligatrux]

So, you lock the door to the cockpit to prevent it from being hijacked, and force every (non-Muslim) passenger to get a cavity search before getting on board... and then you leave axes lying around to chop the door down?

[Red Badger]

FROM OTHER INDEPENDENT UK LINK:

Germanwings has confirmed that an axe was on board for safety reasons, as is routine on all Airbus A320 models. Investigators would not comment on whether it was used to gain entry to the cockpit.

[KansasGirl]

From the article:

“Germanwings has confirmed that an axe was on board for safety reasons, as is routine on all Airbus A320 models.”

[Red Badger]

Germanwings has confirmed that an axe was on board for safety reasons, as is routine on all Airbus A320 models. Investigators would not comment on whether it was used to gain entry to the cockpit.

[BenLurkin]

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-HmIAYzmSXXM/VRRPkh_nLdI/AAAAAAAAODs/nryxuyIis7g/s1600/Crash%2BPosition.jpg

[Noamie]

So, you lock the door to the cockpit to prevent it from being hijacked, and force every (non-Muslim) passenger to get a cavity search before getting on board... and then you leave axes lying around to chop the door down?

Heck, I'll add to this: Then you let a Muslim drive?

[Jack Hydrazine]

Wouldn’t it have been better for the cap to get a bunch of guys together to ram the door down?

[HiTech RedNeck]

In the wake of this kind of problem, people will be wondering why airlines can’t arrange to have ground crews take remote command of aircraft whose crews are in trouble or “misbehaving.”

It’s implementation issues. A remote control would make hijacking possible too in principle. Pilots would not like it any more than they liked the idea of “black boxes” that they could not erase on successful landing (i.e. the chance for being second guessed).

[left that other site]

It takes a few seconds to think the unthinkable.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Has it been determined if the copilot was such? Sounds like nobody is talking about it in Germany.

[caligatrux]

Yes, obviously I realize there was an axe on board. I'm just saying it doesn't seem to make a lot of sense to lock the door and then have a convenient axe to bust it down with. Seriously, for what other "safety" reason would you need an axe on an airplane?