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Germanwings Plane Crash Was No Accident

Posted by timothy on from the that's-bad-news dept.

hcs_$reboot writes The Germanwings plane crash takes a scary turn. After a couple of days investigation, it appears that the co-pilot requested control of the aircraft about 20 minutes into the flight. The pilot then left the cockpit, leaving the co-pilot in full control of the plane. Then, the co-pilot manually and "intentionally" set the plane on the descent that drove it into the mountainside in the southern French Alps. Co-pilot Andreas Lubitz, a 28-year-old German national, could be heard breathing throughout the plane's descent and was alive at the point of impact, according to the prosecutor.

6 of 737 comments (clear)

  1. Read reviews for the copilot here: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    http://pilots-airmen.findthedata.com/l/986395/Andreas-Guenter-Lubitz

  2. Re:it could have been an accident by monkeyzoo · · Score: 5, Informative

    Except that the co-pilot "manipulated the flight monitoring system" to allow the plane to descend at 1000 meters/minute.

    Jeebus, that's terrible!

  3. Re:it could have been an accident by hcs_$reboot · · Score: 5, Informative

    Very unlikely. It's been explained that the door lock has 3 positions: Not locked, Normal, Locked. The door is always in the "Normal" position: the normal position allows another pilot, outside the cockpit, to unlock and enter the door after entering a digital code. The "Locked" position is used only in extreme cases, and nobody but the people inside the cockpit may unlock the door. The door has been switched to "Locked".

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  4. Re:it could have been an accident by twitnutttt · · Score: 5, Informative

    And the co-pilot had to have blocked the door so that the pilot could not re-enter. From the article, there is a code that allows crew members to open the cabin door from the outside, but the pilot inside the cabin has the ultimate power to block access. So it seems the co-pilot deliberately overrode the ability of the pilot to access the cabin again.

  5. Re:it could have been an accident by Richard_at_work · · Score: 5, Informative

    Here is the pic of the switch in question:

    http://oi58.tinypic.com/qyhc0p...

    In "normal" mode its set to allow the door to unlock when the external code is entered.

    In "unlocked" mode, the door is completely unlocked.

    In "locked" mode, the door is completely locked, the external code will not unlock it.

    The action to move between the three states is a very deliberate one - you need to lift the switch up and move it, there is an infinitesimally small chance that it was engaged by accident.

  6. Re:it could have been an accident by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    But there are more would-be terrorists in the world than severely depressed pilots.

    It is not that rare:

    Mozambique Airlines flight 470 - 29 November 2013
    Egypt Air flight 990 - 31 Oktober 1999
    Silk Air flight 185 - 19 December 1997
    Royal Air Maroc flight 630 - 21 Augustus 1994
    Japan Airlines flight 350 - 9 Februari 1982