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.

[caligatrux]

You do realize that in a hard landing most of the doors will not open?

Yes, I realize that, and I realize that the "safety" reason the axe is there is to hack down doors. Which is kind of my point.

[House Atreides]

“...and then you leave axes lying around to chop the door down? “
********************************************************************************************************
You do realize that the axe would not be simply “lying around”? It was stowed in a standard place not visible or known to passengers.

[Jack Hydrazine]

Slightly!

[Alex Murphy]

...get ALL of the men on board to form a battering ram. That door will not be able to withstand that kind of force!

Do you mean like this?

[IncPen]

How often does a copilot mutiny?

EgyptAir 990

[Jack Hydrazine]

LOL! Not exactly!

LOL!

[VTenigma]

Really, what the heck are you going to form a battering ram with for 50 people, the utility pole in your carry on? 5 people running at the door together are going to have the same effect on that small door as one. The energy will be dispersed through the flesh and not imparted to the door. Then you will have injured people in front the you need to deal with.

Don’t you think they tried every thing within their power, they were going to die.

[caligatrux]

You do realize that the axe would not be simply “lying around”? It was stowed in a standard place not visible or known to passengers.

I assume it would be secured and hidden away. Which, in this bass-ackwards world, may not be the safest assumption to make.

But that only reduces the time it would take a determined person to get their hands on it.

[Theoria]

I’m sure they were. But it is a confined area. Only so many cooks could fit into the kitchen.

[WildHighlander57]

“....the airliner had been inexplicably descending from cruising altitude towards the Alps with its engines idle. ....”

Engines idle???

[Jack Hydrazine]

The passengers sat there and screamed in panic as they approached the ground.

[Rodamala]

Careful with that axe, Eugene.

[onedoug]

It’s in the facilitation.

[Rodamala]

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?

[Noamie]

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

Unconfirmed. The only reference/links I have to that are the ones that were posted here on FR in the past 48 hours. I don’t anything more than any of us.

[pfflier]

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.”

That only moves a weak link further down the chain. Enable a loose nut on the ground or a hacker with the capability to take control of an aircraft in flight from a competent flight crew? Seriously??

Procedurally always requiring two people in the cockpit is much easier to implement.

The root cause is getting to look like the Germanair/Lufthansa screening process failed to find a loose nut behind the wheel.

[Red Badger]

Got to keep the loonies on the path...................

[csvset]

Okay they’re going to have too include a cockpit breaching kit. Shotgun , 6’ pry bar shaped charges etc.

[Red Badger]

No room, plus these are Europeans, not Americans...........

[miele man]

Investigators would not comment on whether it was used to gain entry to the cockpit.

Well, why not comment on it then? They’ve already released this information to the public. Unless they’ve found parts of the cabin door with axe damage, how will they know?