Germanwings plane Crashes in French Alps

[YY13VKP]

A Germanwings Airbus A320-211, (reg D-AIPX) crashed today in the french alps whilst on flight 4U9525, killing all 144 passengers and 6 crew members.
RIP to everyone onboard and my thoughts and prayers are with the families affected by this tragedy

[Eastlondoner62]

I wish the families of all on board my condolences and hope that they pull through this difficult time. Including the families of children that were returning from an Exchange trip.

Looking at it, Germanwings staff have flown out to the area on a Lufthansa plane and a plane from the French Air Force was also circling the area. Nobody seems to have known what brought the plane down. My guess is now that they are on the hunt for the flight data recorders and that should help find out what went wrong with this plane.

Germanwings have changed the colour of their logo on their website from red and yellow to Black and white at the moment and have issued a formal statement about the issue.

We must confirm to our deepest regret that Germanwings Flight 4U 9525 from Barcelona to Düsseldorf has suffered an accident over the French Alps. The flight was being operated with an Airbus A320 aircraft, and was carrying 144 passengers and six crew members. Lufthansa and Germanwings have established a telephone hotline. The numbers 0800 014 8904 (UK) and [phone] (worldwide) are available to all the families of the passengers involved for care and assistance. Everyone at Germanwings and Lufthansa is deeply shocked and saddened by these events. Our thoughts and prayers are with the families and friends of the passengers and crew members.



Germanwings is conducting a full investigation.

Going by what is online, there have been no signs of bad weather and the plane seems to have had a very rapid decent. No distress signal was sent out during this period and the Whitehouse doubt that it is terrorism as well. The plane was believed to have been cruising very high, the plane shouldn't have been in descent phase unless it was landing at Zurich or Geneva airport which it wasn't.

My prediction is that the engines would have stalled, resulting in the rapid descent as the plane was cruising far to high for a bird strike 

 

[eggmiester]

Let's not speculate too much obviously but if the engines had stalled mid flight the plane still have been able to glide for several miles while the pilots tried to restart or gain power (starting the APU) to effectively control the aircraft.

Latest press States there was an airworthiness directive issued recently for certain A320's of a similar age due to a sister aircraft performing a rapid descent which was eventually recovered, that apparently resulted in a revision to flight manuals.

In any case I'll be intrigued to find out what happened when the investigation finally reveals what happened and as long as any outcome does not affect my BA flight to Dublin next week, which is a A319/320 route, I'll be happy!!

However my thoughts are with those affected by this tragedy

[vjaska]

Condolences to all involved, always an awful tradegy and thankfully, plane crashes are an all too rare occurrence.

[YY13VKP]

I heard today that the co-pilot had locked out the pilot from the cockpit when he went to the toilet and crashed the plane, as they found out via the A320's black boxes.
WHY WOULD ANYONE DO THAT?! Its outrageous that the co-pilot crashed the plane and decided to lock the captain out and kills 144 others

[vjaska]

Mar 26, 2015 22:24:53 GMT YY13VKP said:

I heard today that the co-pilot had locked out the pilot from the cockpit when he went to the toilet and crashed the plane, as they found out via the A320's black boxes.
WHY WOULD ANYONE DO THAT?! Its outrageous that the co-pilot crashed the plane and decided to lock the captain out and kills 144 others

Without wanting to speculate, the co-pilot could of been suffering a form of depression that lead him to suicide. Not condoning the way he went about it but that's what may have happened. Best wait to see.

[snoggle]

Mar 26, 2015 22:24:53 GMT YY13VKP said:

I heard today that the co-pilot had locked out the pilot from the cockpit when he went to the toilet and crashed the plane, as they found out via the A320's black boxes.
WHY WOULD ANYONE DO THAT?! Its outrageous that the co-pilot crashed the plane and decided to lock the captain out and kills 144 others

When I first heard about how the plane descended and then crashed it seemed to me that it wasn't really an accident (e.g. something failing on the plane). I know it's easy to wise after the event but there's a bit of me that is not surprised by what has emerged about events on the plane. I fear that there will be a fair few more surprises and shocks as people dig around into the life and background of the co pilot.

I also think that those surprises will have some profound consequences for the airline industry and how they monitor their staff and how the security of the cockpit area is controlled. Someone spotted the flaw which would allow a lone pilot to be able to take over and lock out the cockpit area through a perfectly normal event like the other pilot visiting the loo. However we must and wait and see. In some respects I hope I am proved wrong.

[Eastlondoner62]

The Co-Pilot seems to have been suffering depression during the period. He had also recently broken up with his girlfriend before the incident had taken place. When investigating his home officials found out many medical slips torn up stating that he shouldn't be able to work, even ones that were dated for the day of the incident. 

This seems to me like a suicide attempt which has killed 149 other innocent people in the process. The co-pilot locking the pilot outside, then furthermore denying access as well as ignoring ATC shows that he had complete control over what was going on during the flight. I just now hope that the families of the deceased are receiving the needed support and as far as I have heard Lufthansa are doing that to the best of their ability. 

Virgin Atlantic, Monarch and HardJet all have introduced new rules stating that a second crew member must always be in the cockpit at all times, and I heard many other airlines are to follow with this rule and this should be incorporated into training as well.

[sid]

There seems to be no doubt that this was mass murder by the co pilot.

Some airlines have already taken steps to ensure that there will be at least two pilots in the cockpit at all times.

[eggmiester]

I dont think all flights will have three pilots on board though. Short haul flights are usually dual crewed, mainly for cost reasons. So on dual crewed flights a senior member of cabin crew will be able to 'sit in' until the flight deck crew member returns.

For long haul flights that have 1 or maybe 2 relief pilots on board, I would assume one of these crew members will step in, but would all depend on crew resting pattern, as pilots on long haul flights will take a rest period during the flight and be covered by the relief pilot/crew.