Go Back  PPRuNe Forums > Flight Deck Forums > Rumours & News
Reload this Page >

Airbus A320 crashed in Southern France

Rumours & News Reporting Points that may affect our jobs or lives as professional pilots. Also, items that may be of interest to professional pilots.

Airbus A320 crashed in Southern France

Old 26th Mar 2015, 02:30
  #901 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: Windy City
Posts: 8
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
People need to take a breath and back off. There is just not enough info that is verified to come to a rational conclusion.
Castlehard is offline  
Old 26th Mar 2015, 02:32
  #902 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Between a Rock and a Hard Place
Posts: 144
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
CNN are crossing a line. There is too much discussion about security details for my liking.
Jeps is offline  
Old 26th Mar 2015, 02:34
  #903 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Mar 2015
Location: NYC
Posts: 2
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
One other question comes to mind - it seems I might not be able to post on threads but I'll give it another shot...

...can you guys think of/list all incidents (an admittedly tiny tiny list) where pilot 'suicide' is either known or largely suspected, and of that list, which ones (SilkAir 185? any others?) did the 'suicidal' pilot pull the CVR bus during or before the incident?

Half of me thinks the (eminently rare) 'suicidal' pilot would want to disable the CVR so as maybe to avoid being tagged as the cause, the other half says that pilots are very bright and all know full well that almost always - a cause of a crash is going to be discerned regardless of CVR status. And frankly, probably a suicidal crew member doesn't really care if hes going to be found as the culprit because basically he is nutso (at that moment) anyway and knows he'll be dead.

As an aside, I really really hope that crash investigators determine that something happened to 'disable' to the lone crewmember in the flight deck and for whatever reason the other guy couldn't get in . . . vs. a premeditated lockout situation - because as noted above by someone this sort of thing is so exquisitely rare yet the lay flying public will start casting stones where none should be hurled. This guy (if suicidal) will have marred a profession merely by virtue of his own mental insufficiency. And I hope that's not the case. We'll see.
obmot is offline  
Old 26th Mar 2015, 02:39
  #904 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Feb 2015
Location: yankton, sd
Posts: 290
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
if you have a comment for cnn, post it on their twitter site or contact them in other ways.

same for the new york times.


I have to think that a legitimate incapacitating event, happening exactly after the other pilot left for a brief bathroom break, at the top of climb, is a little too coincidental for my liking.

it is interesting to me that the wording indicating that the conversation prior was considered cool.

cool can mean many things. she was cool to my advances. fonzie is cool.

etc.

I think we have a nefarious, well thought out act. surprised too that no one noticed my visine comment.
skyhighfallguy is offline  
Old 26th Mar 2015, 02:45
  #905 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: world
Posts: 1
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
this page alone gives me the opportunity to "believe" in the NY Times or "Twitterati".

thats quite a choice.

costalpilot is offline  
Old 26th Mar 2015, 02:45
  #906 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Nov 2002
Location: Wilmington
Age: 47
Posts: 133
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Thumbs up

I have to think that a legitimate incapacitating event, happening exactly after the other pilot left for a brief bathroom break, at the top of climb, on an hour long flight is hysterically unlikely.
Fixed it for you.
TRF4EVR is offline  
Old 26th Mar 2015, 02:50
  #907 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Nov 1999
Location: Hornby Island, British Columbia, Canada
Posts: 103
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
If this horrific scenario described by the NYT is true (and I sincerely hope this is a case of rotten journalism), then the passengers at the front of the plane would have been recording the attempted re-entry into the cockpit on their cameras and cell phones. Would the memory storage in these devices, SD cards and so on, survive this severe impact sufficient to be readable?

The scenes inside the plane if the passengers were not incapacitated are beyond imagination, and the possibility that these are recorded and can be replayed is the stuff of nightmares.

Please let this not be the explanation of the crash......
McGinty is offline  
Old 26th Mar 2015, 02:54
  #908 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Mar 2014
Location: Australia
Posts: 17
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Assuming current information is correct regarding the PNF's re-entry to the cockpit, some serious questions will now need to be raised as to how this security measure after 911 has royally backfired.

Like in the US, if one of the two pilots needs to leave the cockpit, a crew-member should take their place until said pilot returns.

There should never be a situation where one pilot gets left in there with the capability to prevent the other returning.

It could be as simple as a heart attack surely, rather than a suicidal or terrorist pilot?

What a damn shame...
JSmithDTV is offline  
Old 26th Mar 2015, 02:59
  #909 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Dec 2013
Location: Cleveland, OH
Age: 48
Posts: 3
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
I'm not seeing how the presence of another crew member prevents this scenario. Let's be realistic, if the pilot leaves the cockpit, and the FO has nefarious intentions (or vice versa), the extra crew member is very likely to be a female flight attendant. Not much of a deterrent against someone intent on doing harm.
SpeedyD is offline  
Old 26th Mar 2015, 03:02
  #910 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: Cheshire
Posts: 183
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
UK TV news - 'expert' suggesting that 1 component of CVR was so badly damaged in the impact, the timeline data was missing, so they can hear the audio but without knowing when it was recorded. More worrying was report that FDR casing had been found sans internal recording apparatus. Back to good old fashioned crash investigation then. I guess Lufthansa and Airbus Ind CEO's are 'bricking it'.
Nov71 is offline  
Old 26th Mar 2015, 03:05
  #911 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: Rockytop, Tennessee, USA
Posts: 5,898
Likes: 0
Received 1 Like on 1 Post
There should never be a situation where one pilot gets left in there with the capability to prevent the other returning.
Maybe that's how it outta be but this is nothing new, the Captain was locked out of the cockpit on the Ethiopian 702 pilot hijack to Geneva last year:

The high-altitude drama began when the chief pilot of ET702 left the cockpit of the Boeing 767-300 to use the toilet, Mr. Deillon said. Mr. Tegegn then locked the cockpit door and took control of the airliner, he said.

At about 4 a.m., the Italy-bound Ethiopian Airlines jet contacted air-traffic controllers with a request to land in Geneva. Shortly afterward, another message, this time using the number 7500—the aviation code for a hijacking—was transmitted over the aircraft's transponder.
Authorities: Co-Pilot Took Control of Ethiopian Airlines Plane, Wanted Asylum - WSJ
Airbubba is offline  
Old 26th Mar 2015, 03:08
  #912 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: Farnborough
Posts: 34
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
LASJayHawk.....


Remember, all an incapacitated pilot has to do to allow cockpit entry is simply do NOTHING. The cockpit door lock has a fence built around it so even if you are slumped over the centre console you cannot prevent the door being opened from the outside.

The door can easily be opened from the outside without ANY action whatsoever from the inside. It's specificially designed this way of course for the incap situation.

I have flown the A320 for three separate UK operators. NONE of these required a member of Cabin Crew present in the Flight Deck when a pilot leaves for physiological reasons. What would be the point? The ONLY case that requires a member of Cabin Crew to be present is when the CCTV is broken and hence a second pair of eyes is needed to look through the peep hole to verify entry when the other pilot is returning from his toilet break allowing the remaining pilot to stay in his seat flying the aircraft and monitoring the radio at all times.
boredaccountant is offline  
Old 26th Mar 2015, 03:08
  #913 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Feb 2015
Location: New Hampshire
Posts: 152
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
SD cards and so on, survive this severe impact sufficient to be readable?
Absolutely. There appears to be very little heat damage. It would be bad luck for something as small as the chip in an SD card to be damaged by being hit so directly that it would be scratched or cracked. Even if damaged, there are methods for extracting some of the information.
.Scott is offline  
Old 26th Mar 2015, 03:09
  #914 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: Rock #3
Posts: 47
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
UK TV news - 'expert' suggesting that 1 component of CVR was so badly damaged in the impact, the timeline data was missing, so they can hear the audio but without knowing when it was recorded.
That would be a non-issue, as long as they can match even one word with ATC comms. The rest could be easily sync'ed from that.
Dynamic Roller is offline  
Old 26th Mar 2015, 03:13
  #915 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: Farnborough
Posts: 34
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Is it possible that the remaining Pilot in the flight deck was incap, and the other crew on the aircraft simply forgot the appropriate code to regain access to the flight deck?

Highly unlikely I think for an experienced crew in a respected operator. Certainly in my airline, we regularly train for this and I sometimes ask my FO at the brief the procedure to gain access to the flight deck In these circumstances.

This would however alievate the theory of the pilot outside being ' deliberately ' locked out. Such a horrifying thought. . . . . .
boredaccountant is offline  
Old 26th Mar 2015, 03:15
  #916 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: Doomadgee
Posts: 279
Received 47 Likes on 25 Posts
I have advocated (as annoying as it is) for a cabin crew to be present in the flight

deck whenever a pilot is out of the cockpit. Very hard for a pilot to deny entry to

his companion if the cabin crew is at the door and can open it in a second if the

sole pilot at the seat starts to get out of his seat.

Pilot suicides do occur.
Capn Rex Havoc is offline  
Old 26th Mar 2015, 03:39
  #917 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: Germany (SLF)
Posts: 50
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Originally Posted by Capn Rex Havoc
Very hard for a pilot to deny entry to
his companion if the cabin crew is at the door and can open it in a second if the
sole pilot at the seat starts to get out of his seat.
And what happens if the cabin crew grabs the fire axe and kills the remaining pilot, then flies the plane into a nuclear plant's spent fuel pool?

The door itself is the cause of the problem - because it introduces a single point of failure in the pointy end of the plane. One rogue crew member is all it takes to commandeer a plane.

Even on 9/11, there was a chance to correct the situation - passengers could have fought the hijackers, and on UA93, they at least prevented deaths on the ground. In fact the only reason why it happened was that obeying hijackers was the standard practice back then.

With the new cockpit door, you have no such chance. And it is not impossible for a motivated terrorist to become a pilot or an FA - the 9/11 hijackers were not dumb either.
cockpitvisit is offline  
Old 26th Mar 2015, 03:44
  #918 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Apr 2014
Location: Australia
Posts: 2
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Originally Posted by DAL208
Why would a 'senior military official' be involved in the investigation?
The Gendarmerie in France is a military organisation.
hack404 is offline  
Old 26th Mar 2015, 03:51
  #919 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Nov 2002
Location: Wilmington
Age: 47
Posts: 133
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Thumbs up

The door itself is the cause of the problem - because it introduces a single point of failure in the pointy end of the plane.
Agree entirely. It was a stop-gap measure taken in haste to respond to a specific method of attack. Most sane people knew on 9/12/01 (or uh 12/9/01, if you prefer), that no one was going to be able to commandeer a jet with some sheet metal razor blades again. But our security measures are ever reactive, rather than proactive.
TRF4EVR is offline  
Old 26th Mar 2015, 03:56
  #920 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Melbourne
Posts: 704
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
AndyJS
How strong is the cockpit door when locked? I imagine a lot of passengers would have helped the pilot to try to hit the door open. They wouldn't have just sat there.
Apparently, it has to withstand a grenade or small arms attack. Press Release ? Airlines Meet FAA's Hardened Cockpit Door Deadline
VH-Cheer Up is offline  

Thread Tools
Search this Thread

Contact Us - Archive - Advertising - Cookie Policy - Privacy Statement - Terms of Service

Copyright © 2024 MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. All rights reserved. Use of this site indicates your consent to the Terms of Use.