Germanwings tragedy: How post-9/11 safety measures factored into crash

The Germanwings co-pilot who crashed a passenger plane in the French Alps on Tuesday — killing all 150 people onboard — locked his captain out of the cockpit, French authorities said.

This revelation has led many to question the rules and logistics surrounding access to the flight’s controls — most notably the cockpit door.

“Cockpit doors have been reinforced since 9/11. They are much more secure than the light plastic or wood doors that preceded to keep passengers out,” aviation lawyer Ladd Sanger said in an interview with Yahoo News.

The Airbus A320 has a code pad outside the door to request entry from the cockpit crew or open the reinforced door if both pilots are incapacitated, as seen in a video produced by the company.

A buzzer inside the cockpit on the rear of the overhead panel notifies the crew of the request.

A pilot can then grant or deny access using a toggle switch with three positions: unlock, normal, and lock.

A picture inside a flight simulator shows the cockpit of an Airbus A320 in Vienna on March 26, 2015. …

Once the door is locked, the automatic opening function, the code pad, and the buzzer are suspended for five minutes. One can easily imagine situations in which hijackers or terrorists could obtain the code from a flight attendant under threat of violence, which could justify the five-minute freeze-out.
Typically, the person trying to gain access will then need to use an intercom to speak with the cockpit crew.
There is an emergency code that crew members may use to access the cockpit, but it obviously cannot be used when the code pad is deactivated.
Marseille prosecutor Brice Robin identified Andreas Lubitz as the man who intentionally crashed flight 9525, as his captain pounded on the cockpit door and the passengers screamed.

"Usually, when someone commits suicide, he is alone," Robin said. "When you are responsible for 150 people at the back, I don't necessarily call that a suicide."

A picture inside a flight simulator shows the door locking system of an Airbus A320 in Vienna on Mar …

“We don’t want to indulge in any findings beyond the speculations of the French authorities,” Lufthansa Chief Executive Carsten Spohr said at a press conference Thursday. (Lufthansa is the parent company of Germanwings.)
The intentional crashing of airplanes — one of the largest killers of innocent passengers — has become a disturbing trend that’s a weak spot in our otherwise “incredibly safe” aviation system, Sanger said.
“You’re relying on the humans in the airplane to fly the airplane. As long as you have that element present, it will be difficult to eliminate,” according to Sanger.
Before reaching the top position, Spohr held many posts at Lufthansa: engineer, pilot, manager, and so on.
“Always, wherever I was, whoever my boss was, the rule was always safety is No. 1. And that this has happened to us — I can only say we are sorry,” Spohr said.

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Flowers and lit candles are placed on the ground in Cologne Bonn airport, March 26, 2015. The co-pil …

But, Spohr noted, no big airlines in Europe have regulations as strict as their American counterparts.

On U.S. airlines, when manning two-pilot aircrafts, both co-pilots need to be at the helm during takeoffs and landings. During cruise flight, however, one may hand over complete control so he or she can use the bathroom or attend to other matters outside.

Most U.S. carriers require a flight attendant to stay in the cockpit and lock it until the co-pilot returns, Sanger explained.
Someone operating a single-pilot plane is required to wear an oxygen mask after reaching a certain altitude as a precaution.
Aviation experts are looking into avionics, electrical systems for aircrafts, which let planes react to potentially destructive obstacles that are not reasonably foreseeable in their flight path, sort of like a car’s braking system.
Certain avionic setups are designed to protect against cases like John F. Kennedy Jr.’s death, when the small plane he was flying went into a graveyard spiral.

“In general, they keep the pilot from putting the plane in a situation that exceeds its designed operating envelope,” Sanger said. “It could have mitigated that descent rate and pitched the plane’s nose up so it wouldn’t continue such a steep dive.”

Ultimately, as Sanger notes, a pilot can override the circuitry if he or she is dedicated to crashing the plane.

 http://news.yahoo.com/germanwings-tragedy--fortified-cockpit-doors---emergency-locking-post-9-11-162103787.html