Lufthansa discontinue 2 person cockpit rule

[Arewerunning]

Lufthansa discontinue 2 person cockpit rule.


SVP Flight Operations & Accountable Manager Raimund Mueller realease an interview today officializing to group employees the discontinue of the 2 person cockpit rule: "we have the greatest confidence in our pilots"

I guess with the likes they are hiring in their low cost subsidiaries are up for a surprise...

[Sober Lark]

we have the greatest confidence in our pilots

I never guessed one of my friends would commit suicide. No one did and no one knows why. On the positive side, we can talk more openly today about such issues than we used to and that's a good thing.

[Herod]

Why? There is surely no commercial reason, and there is a very good safety reason for keeping it.

[Frosch]

This step was long overdue.

Aviation is all about Risk Assessment, and the naive rule, which was introduced in shear panic, will not prevent one single suicide if a pilot decides to commit one. Even the second pilot beside her (or him) would most probably fail to do so.

But it opened up a bundle of other risks of which we now get rid of to a certain extend. They hesitated way too long in fear of the dumb public opinion.

To all the "How can this be"-simpletons: Ever asked yourself how "difficult" it is to become a flight attendant and about all the "tests" and "screenings" you have to pass? :eek:

Good decision! :ok:

[Herod]

The only thing the flight attendant has to do is open the door. It would, I believe, have prevented the German Wings.

[Reverserbucket]

Herod
There is surely no commercial reason, and there is a very good safety reason for keeping it.
I'd argue there's also a commercial reason for keeping it in as much as introducing it helped improve customer confidence for the perceived safety benefit. As well as that, and despite evidence to disprove it, there is a belief that someone with suicide in mind is significantly less likely to follow through in company than alone.

[ve3id]

Regardless of suicide, what about sudden decompression and bad quick-donning masks?

[Denti]

Isn't that why they are tested at the start of each flight duty? And if they don't work, maintenance is going to fix that or the plane is AOG. Not to mention, the doors unlock in a decompression.

Anyway, all german airlines will stop that procedure, latest in june. The EASA recommendation requires a safety and security assessment and, if it is positive for the 2 person rule, the introduction of that procedure. That assessment was made after the 2 person rule was introduced and, not surprisingly, showed that actually the new rule was quite a bit less safe than the former procedure. However, german airlines were of the opinion that public pressure was so high that they had to use the less safe option anyway. Now they justify the abandonment of the two person rule with the introduction of random alcohol, drug and medicine testing (any medicine, no matter if over the counter or not, taken without prior consent of the AME is illegal and can lead to immediate dismissal). And of course with the fact that suicides are a lot less likely than hijackings.

As the german LBA required CCTV with at least three different camera-views of the flightdeck entry area for a reinforced door, as well as the possibility to open to door without leaving a seat, there is no practical reason for a second person to be inside the flightdeck if one pilot leaves. In a decompression the door will unlock automatically, in the case of an incapacitation of the remaining pilot the emergency code will unlock the door as well.

[ve3id]

I'm being the devil's advocate here. Can you test the automatic unlocking of the door on decompression, and the emergency override? Is this in the pre-flight check list?

[Denti]

Yes and yes.

[Chesty Morgan]

How do you test the decompression unlock?

[Denti]

Check the pressure sensor status light on the overhead panel. Of course one could just use a small pressure difference over the sensor and open the then unlocked door. Easy enough to do, but not really required as the system is constantly self checking anyway.

[4Greens]

You always need two pilots in case one falls asleep. Been there !