Posted on 03/26/2015 5:21:36 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
The co-pilot of Germanwings Flight 9525 appears to have deliberately crashed the plane after he was left alone in the cockpit, according to a French prosecutor.
The captain was intentionally locked outside minutes before the A320 crashed into an alpine mountain ridge, French Prosecutor Brice Robin said Thursday. Co-pilot Andreas Lubitz, a 28-year-old German national, was silent throughout the plane’s descent and was alive at the point of impact, according to the prosecutor.
Mr. Robin’s conclusions are drawn from the plane’s cockpit voice recorder, recovered at the crash site in the French Alps late Tuesday and analyzed by French accident investigators on Wednesday.
The recording contains screams believed to be from passengers, once they recognized the plane was crashing.
Investigators are now exploring why Flight 9525 went into its unauthorized descent from its 38,000-foot cruising altitude with one crew member absent. The descent led to the crash about 10 minutes later.
French air accident investigators said on Wednesday they extracted information from the jet’s cockpit voice recorder. The recording contained voices and other sounds, said Rémi Jouty, director of France’s aviation accident investigation office, which is leading the probe. He added that there was no explanation yet for why the plane went down.
Germanwings, the low-fare unit of Deutsche Lufthansa AG, hasn’t disclosed the identity of the pilots....
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
‘Is that 630 total hours of flight time? Euro flight training seems skimpy. I doubt a 28 year old would be flying an airbus of a US airline.’
It Russia a captain in his or her earlier 20s is quite common. A 28 y.o. would make a veteran airman, who probably also spent some time in AF before moving to airline for longer $.
It might be true for Germany as well.
Co-pilot hid medical problems from the airline.
http://www.cnn.com/2015/03/27/europe/france-germanwings-plane-crash-main/index.html
Concierge engineering, ergonomics, etc. To make things easier to use. But hopefully still fool-proof.
But they are almost never fool-proof.
I watched the video now.
The default location doesn’t give me great confidence. Neither does the fact this is a bounce-back switch always going to the midway position.
I also find it curious that the access code can override the lock? If only for 30 seconds. Did I miss something? Maybe it is still in Norm; must leave, don’t have time to rerun video now. Later.
SKY News: The US Federal Aviation Administration issued Lubitz a third-class medical certificate which meant that he had been cleared of psychological problems including psychosis, bipolar disorder and personality disorder that was “severe enough to have repeatedly manifested itself by overt acts”. The certificate also means that he wasn’t found to be suffering from another mental health condition that would have made him “unable to safely perform the duties or exercise the privileges” of a pilot’s licence.
SKY News: French TV network M6 is reporting that antidepressants were found at Lubitz’s house. The network said that the ripped up letter signing Lubitz off work was for 16 to 29 March. His medical records are also among the items seized by police, it adds.
M6 also reported that the person who told investigators that Lubitz had been receiving treatment for depression for six years was his girlfriend, about whom little is known.
SKY News: German magazine website Focus Online reports that Lufthansa has rejected any responsibility for failing to spot any issues with Lubitz’s medical fitness. It reports that Lufthansa spokesman Michael Lamberty told the Rheinische Post: “The assessment of medical fitness of pilots is not with the individual airline, but the Federal Aviation Authority.”
Its a fan page...
but it still makes me “go” hmmm
SKY News: Focus Online is also reporting that Lubitz bought two Audis two weeks ago - one for himself and one for his girlfriend. One of the cars was handed over to him last week, the website said.
Bought two cars, then finds out he can’t do his job due to medical condition report.
Audis over there are like Hyundais over here...
Golden Gate? SF, the homo capital of the US.
The Bud light sign (NY) also says "exclusive partner".
Trick or treaters? (in disguise) might be indicative of a closet homosexual either with or looking for a steady relationship with another. If that went wrong, or disease made him unfit for flight duty, maybe that would be a motive.
They should. If Sully hadn't spent time in the simulator learning how to ditch, that might have had a different outcome. There has to be a way to put even a big plane down to optimize the number of survivors. (in some cases, granted, given terrain and other factors, it just won't make a difference.)
Just looking at the available pics of the guy he exhibits a physical characteristic that, in my experience, always predicts trouble. He would not have been hired in my shop to operate power machinery, let alone, get into a 90 million dollar cockpit. From the sound of the weasel Lufthansa guy It seems the Luftwaffe is willing to shade the rules, and their judgement, to get pilots. Just too dam bad the jerkopf had to take a bunch of people with him.
Actually we do learn how to “crash.” The really big planes don’t get the same opportunity but the rest of us get to do “dead stick” landings. At some point the instructor shoves in the throttle and tells you to put it on the ground. But learning dead stick is great practice for when you might have to land on a short or soft field-—or even a pasture, where you want to minimize the ground roll. It’s all part of driving the machine as opposed to going along for the ride. And slowing the plane to the flyable minimum would also minimize possible damage on the ground.
A possible modification: have a distress code as well as an unlock code and modify the logic such that the unlock code always unlocks the door, pilot veto not permitted. However, entering the distress code disables the unlock code, making entry from outside impossible.
"What is the code, infidel slut?" "2368, please don't kill me!" Hijacker punches in 2368, rendering the door locked from the inside securely.
Of course, it would be necessary to have opening the door always reenable the unlock code. Otherwise, the suicidal pilot could simply enter the distress code during his bathroom break. Obvious flaw: the scheme depends on the cabin crew to give or punch in the distress code in place of the unlock code.
The US practice of having a cabin crew member sit in for an absent pilot would seem to be a better idea. But then there is the possibility of the suicidal pilot simply killing little Sally with his bare hands.
I had read that as a teenager in North Texas that Sullenberger first learned to fly from a crop-duster pilot. May have gained some early confidence in operating down low.
cell phones don’t work from the airplanes flying higher than 2000-3000ft.
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