"Germanwings Pilot Was Locked Out of Cockpit"

[Speedy]

Lemon Drop wrote:
why isn't flight data uploaded to the internet?

$$$ Not much but the airlines resist everything.

[Will Collier]

Yeah, that's bad.

[Lemon Drop]

Notice how the names of the pilots haven't been released yet? That seems very unusual, especially for Western media. Names of victims have been released immediately.

Next question - in the US aren't they required to have at least two crew in the cockpit at all times? So if one of two pilots leaves for the john, a flight attendant waits in there until the pilot returns.

[Paul F.]

I'm waiting for the press to blow up with "I told you so!" regarding armoring/locking cockpit doors... :-(

[Paul F.]

Lemon Drop wrote:
Notice how the names of the pilots haven't been released yet? That seems very unusual, especially for Western media. Names of victims have been released immediately.

I can think of a few reasons for this... notifications of family is one. Spin control is another, and not wanting people to jump to conclusions if the pilots name is Achmed, is another... It IS odd, but there's still the possibility it's not anything nefarious.

Next question - in the US aren't they required to have at least two crew in the cockpit at all times? So if one of two pilots leaves for the john, a flight attendant waits in there until the pilot returns.

That's my understanding.. .but I don't think those rules are followed by international flights.

[Uncle Wig]

mrlynn wrote:
[quote=silvarios]
Seems like an ominous discovery, but perhaps the pilot still inside had a medical emergency and could not respond?

Yes, sudden cockpit depressurization, remaining pilot attempts descent before passing out.

Sure hope it wasn't deliberate. The one thing that's always reassured me about flying was that the pilot had no more interest in dying than I did.

/Mr Lynn
I'm not exactly sure what you mean, but no: the cockpit is not pressurized separately from the cabin. If the man in the cockpit had passed out, so would the other pilot (and passengers) out in the cabin.

It would seem that either the pilot in the cockpit either became incapacitated after the other pilot left and was locked out (an amazing coincidence), or he deliberately refused to open the cockpit door.

[mrlynn]

Uncle Wig wrote:
I'm not exactly sure what you mean, but no: the cockpit is not pressurized separately from the cabin. If the man in the cockpit had passed out, so would the other pilot (and passengers) out in the cabin. . .

A discussion I read (or heard) recently implied that the cockpit and passenger cabin were separately pressurized, so if, say, the window glass blew out in the cockpit, the cabin might not have been immediately affected. But I might have heard wrong, or the source might have been wrong. Do you know for sure, as regards the Airbus 320?

/Mr Lynn

[Carnos Jax]

It is hard to sift through all the conversation out there on any given subject. From my own experience in the aerospace industry, I can tell you unequivocally that the cockpit is not separately pressurized from the passenger compartment. And in fact, any closed compartment (such as cockpits and lavatories) must be able to handle sudden decompressions without detrimental effects.

[RAMd®d]

"We don’t know yet the reason why one of the guys went out,”

More importantly, I'd want to know why the other pilot couldn't or didn't respond.

Why was the one black box "empty".


And in fact, any closed compartment (such as cockpits and lavatories) must be able to handle sudden decompressions without detrimental effects.

I'd image that a large volume has an easier time handling sudden depressurization than smaller volumes. A cockpit or lavatory or any other small space would probably need a *lot* of reinforcement to withstand depressurization separately.

As to not releasing the pilots names yet, I think next of kin notification is probably at the top of the list. I don't know if airlines makes such notifications for passengers before releasing their names. They never really know who to notify. They would have that information for their employees. Do we know who the flight attendants were?

Spin control, if it were the case, would more accurately be replaced by stupidity prevention, if there were such a thing. Stupid people jump to conclusions with no evidence because… Well, we know why.

[Lemon Drop]

If the pilot left behind in the locked cockpit had some sort of health emergency and was incapacitated, that doesn't explain why the plane began a controlled descent from cruising altitude. They would have been on autopilot at that point, right?


If this is true it's quite a scoop by the NY Times. If it's not somebody's in big trouble.