Thursday, March 26, 2015

Germanwings Pilot Was Locked Out of Cockpit Before Crash in France

Looking more and more like "suicide by pilot". 
Yes, it's early, but the airline already tells us it's "an accident" so it's apparently OK to speculate. 

But Muslim pilots have murdered airline passengers before. 
Too often. http://abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=82910&page=1
And why hide the names of the crew?: "Lufthansa, the parent company of Germanwings, has characterized the crash as an accident. 
The airline has not disclosed the identities of the pilots, except to say that the captain was a 10 ­year veteran with more than 6,000 hours of flying time in A320s."

Germanwings Pilot Was Locked Out of Cockpit Before Crash in France - NYTimes.com
Then the audio indicated that one of the pilots left the cockpit and could not re­enter.
“The guy outside is knocking lightly on the door and there is no answer,” the investigator said. 
“And then he hits the door stronger and no answer. 
There is never an answer.”
He said, “You can hear he is trying to smash the door down.”
While the audio seemed to give some insight into the circumstances leading up to the Germanwings
crash, it also left many questions unanswered.
"We don’t know yet the reason why one of the guys went out,” said the official, who requested anonymity because the investigation is continuing.
"But what is sure is that at the very end of the flight, the other pilot is alone and does not open the door."
The data from the voice recorder seems only to deepen the mystery surrounding the crash and provides no indication of the condition or activity of the pilot who remained in the cockpit.
The descent from 38,000 feet over about 10 minutes was alarming but still gradual enough to indicate that the twin ­engine Airbus A320 had not been damaged catastrophically.
At no point during the descent was there any communication from the cockpit to air traffic controllers or any other signal of an emergency.
...Lufthansa, the parent company of Germanwings, has characterized the crash as an accident. 
The airline has not disclosed the identities of the pilots, except to say that the captain was a 10­year veteran with more than 6,000 hours of flying time in A320s.

No comments: