Another airliner down, pilot locked out of cockpit

[spacemaverick]

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/cockpit-voice-tape-studied-in-airbus-crash-nyt-says-pilot-locked-out/ar-AAa0la6

Cockpit voice tape studied in Airbus crash; NYT says pilot locked out

SEYNE-LES-ALPES/PARIS, March 25 (Reuters) - Investigators have retrieved cockpit voice recordings from one of the black boxes of the German Airbus plane that crashed into the Alps, killing everyone onboard, officials said on Wednesday.

The New York Times reported that evidence from the recordings showed that one of the pilots left the cockpit and could not get back in before the flight went down.

"The guy outside is knocking lightly on the door and there is no answer," an unnamed investigator told the Times, citing the recordings. "And then he hits the door stronger and no answer. There is never an answer."

"You can hear he is trying to smash the door down," the investigator added.
The retrieval of the recordings came as French President Francois Hollande, Germany's Angela Merkel and Spain's Mariano Rajoy travelled to the crash site in a remote French Alpine region to pay tribute to the 150 victims, mostly Germany and Spanish.

While Hollande promised that authorities would not rest until the causes of the crash were known, France's BEA air incident investigation bureau said it was still far too early to draw meaningful conclusions on why the plane, operated by the Germanwings budget arm of Lufthansa, went down.

"We have just been able to extract a usable audio data file," BEA director Remi Jouty told a news conference at its headquarters outside Paris.

More at the above link......

Well we have the mysterious MH 370 where we don't know what happened.  Then we have MH 17 and it was downed either by a missile or another aircraft.  Still early on this one.  Guess we wait on the flight data recorder and see what was going on with the aircraft.  No mayday, no radio traffic in the last minutes and 150 people gone.  The largest part of the aircraft about the size of a car.  Obliterated in the Alps. 

[spacemaverick]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3011235/Germanwings-pilots-REFUSE-fly-s-revealed-doomed-jet-grounded-faults.html

Germanwings pilots REFUSE to fly as it's revealed doomed jet was grounded over faults just 24 HOURS before fatal Alps crash
One Germanwings flight cancelled because pilots 'didn't feel able to fly'
Passengers stranded at UK airports yesterday after crews refused to work

[micjer]

One theory is that the windshield may have cracked or popped out, leaving the pilots without oxygen.  If found to be true, somebody is in big trouble.

[Pimander]

I doesn't sound good for the technicians if the plane was grounded 24 hours earlier.  Someone is in hot water most likely.

[Sinny]

Germanwings co-pilot appears to have crashed plane deliberately – prosecutor
http://rt.com/news/244265-a320-crash-deliberate-pilot/

[micjer]

This is what the MSM, radio news, is saying here in N America. That the co-pilot was to blame.

[spacemaverick]

Airbus cockpit access procedure.

I sure would like to know the background on the co-pilot.  As Sinny pointed out with her link there is a possibility that the co-pilot dove the plane into the ground.  The reason(s) unknown.

[spacemaverick]

Aircrew Mental Health - Self monitoring?

http://www.floridatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2015/03/26/germanwings-mental-health-screenings-pilots/70479010/

A French prosecutor revealed Thursday that the co-pilot of Germanwings Flight 9525 intentionally crashed the commercial passenger plane on March 24 in the French Alps.

Officials have not called the deliberate act by co-pilot Andreas Lubitz, 28, one of suicide, but they did say Lubitz passed his medical tests.

However, airlines both domestic and abroad largely rely on "self-monitoring" when it comes to tracking the mental health of pilots.

Each country's civil aviation authority has their own rules for health screenings, according to a statement from Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Alison Duquette.

More at the link....

[spacemaverick]

http://news.yahoo.com/official-1-pilot-locked-crash-plane-cockpit-072049706.html

......The prosecutor said there was no indication of terrorism, and did not elaborate on why investigators do not suspect a political motive. He said they are instead focusing on the co-pilot's "personal, family and professional environment" to try to determine why he did it......

.......Andreas Lubitz's "intention (was) to destroy this plane," Marseille prosecutor Brice Robin said, laying out the horrifying conclusions French investigators reached after listening to the last minutes of Tuesday's Flight 9525 from the plane's black box voice data recorder......

......Airlines in Europe are not required to have two people in the cockpit at all times, unlike the standard U.S. operating procedure, which was changed after the 9/11 attacks to require a flight attendant to take the spot of a briefly departing pilot.....

.....Europe's third-largest budget airline, Norwegian Air Shuttle, announced Thursday that it plans to adopt new rules requiring two crew members to always be present in the cockpit......


Excerpts from the article

[Shasta56]

This is the first I've heard of the co-pilot theory.  I thought perhaps the pilot in the cockpit had a medical emergency that prevented him opening the door.   A sad situation in any case.

Shasta

[Pimander]

Absolutely amazing. :-/

This is the first I've heard of the co-pilot theory.  I thought perhaps the pilot in the cockpit had a medical emergency that prevented him opening the door.   A sad situation in any case.

Shasta, the door can be opened from the outside using a code only the pilot and cabin crew know.  However, to prevent terrorists entering the cockpit you can activate a 5 minute lock but only from inside the cockpit.  The co-pilot must have done that and therefore was deliberately locking out the pilot.  Also you cannot activate descent easily or accidentally.  This appears to have been deliberate.

Very sad.  God knows what the motive was?

[Shasta56]

The last time I was on an airliner was 1985.  I confess to being unaware of how things work in a cockpit.  As a nurse, my first instinct on anything like this is that a medical problem occurred.  Thank you for the information.

Shasta

[zorgon]

You should read the NASA Airline Safety Study report. NASA suppressed it because it was so bad would scare people. Congress made them release it. I have a copy somewhere on the Livingmoon

NASA Airplane Safety Report Stalled
Oct. 23, 2007
http://abcnews.go.com/WN/story?id=3765351

Members of Congress have now demanded that the data be preserved and presented to lawmakers.

"If the data shows that there are problems with safety, then we need to know that and we need to fix it," Rep. Brad Miller D-N.C., said. Miller, who chairs the House Science and Technology investigations and oversight subcommittee, said, "We shouldn't just decide not to release (the information) rather than have people worry about it."

In a statement, NASA administrator Michael Griffin said, "As a general practice, I believe that NASA research and data should be widely available."

The administrator has now taken steps to make sure the safety survey data is preserved and the agency is looking into whether it can release it. A NASA spokesman told ABC News the data is still being analyzed, and that an analysis won't be finished until the end of the year.

The other links I had are all removed and I can't find the actual paper but I know I have it somewhere

[Sinny]

I want to know why the increased frequency in all these 'plane' headlines?
Coincidence?

If the increase of frequency were not mere coincidence, what could the underlining significance possibly be?

[spacemaverick]

http://www.37000feet.com/

Browse and Search NASA's Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS)

The Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS) is a repository of voluntary safety related reports submitted by pilots, air traffic controllers, flight attendants, mechanics and dispatchers. Its aim is to collect safety related incidents and suggestions from aviation personal in a confidential manner. The system provides a foundation and learning opportunity for improving aviation safety.

ASRS reports are collected, disseminated and administered by NASA. The reports are public information available from NASA's ASRS website. This site improves on NASA's by offering convenient search and quick browsing. NASA presents all reports in uppercase abbreviated text, which is difficult to read. This site converts report text back to its normal non-abbreviated upper/lowercase.

Found the site interesting indeed.  Zorgon, you may find this an interesting site.  I didn't know this even existed.  Ran across it by accident.