Airbus A320 Plane crashes in the Alps

[Acey]

Passengers will sue the heck out of LH, but there will be no repercussions for the airline unless it's proven he failed multiple mental assessments or its proved somebody swept some stuff under the rug.

[Ducay]

Mother-f'er - senseless murder of 150 people.

Not as overtly psychotic, but a higher loss of life than most, if not all, mass shootings or serial killers.

[Addick]

If Mr. Lubitz was suffering from mental health issues, was this a preventable incident?

[Super Nintendo Chalmers]

Originally Posted by Bagor

Apparently they do, but it can be overridden from inside the cockpit.

Makes sense if the worry is someone forcing one of the flight crew to give up the code.

[Art Vandelay]

Originally Posted by Acey

I'm sorry, but I still fail to see how that's going to do a damn thing. If you want to bring the plane down, you're going to do it by whatever means necessary. People acting like this hasn't happened before.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feder...ess_Flight_705

And this one, where there were 2 pilots up front, one trying to crash the plane, the other trying to save it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EgyptAir_Flight_990

[Flames89]

One thing that doesn't make sense is his controlled descent. If you want to really go down, why not just take it down?

[Burninator]

Originally Posted by Flames89

One thing that doesn't make sense is his controlled descent. If you want to really go down, why not just take it down?

Hard to apply logic to an illogical act.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by Flames89

One thing that doesn't make sense is his controlled descent. If you want to really go down, why not just take it down?

Searching for the spot that he wants to die on.

[GirlySports]

"Plane just stopped working" probably scares me more than suicide by pilot.

and...

I know I am beating a dead horse here, but I saw a bit of CNN with the sound off at the mall yesterday afternoon. I tried to avoid the closed captioning, but can't stop sometimes. The headline was something to the effect of, "Internet websites theorize that plane landed in [insert small island whose name I can't recall]." 30 minutes of discussion followed. Repulsive. They are dedicating large chunks of coverage to tin hat websites in a non-ironic way. WTF?

[nik-]

Yeah. I'm more "ok" with this than a jetliner just failing ... or even worse, just vanishing.

This is horrible obviously, but I mean this is something that you can't account for.

[FlamesAddiction]

Originally Posted by Flames89

One thing that doesn't make sense is his controlled descent. If you want to really go down, why not just take it down?

I could be wrong and there are probably people here that can confirm or not, but I think with these types of planes, you almost need to trick it into thinking everything is normal otherwise there are self-correcting features that kick in.

At any rate, gliding into the side of a mountain is still more peaceful than nose-diving into the ground. Sometimes people want to die, but still want to do it with the least stress as possible.

[nfotiu]

Originally Posted by Flames89

One thing that doesn't make sense is his controlled descent. If you want to really go down, why not just take it down?

I have no idea what I'm talking about, but it sounded like from previous posts in this thread that the Airbus is fly by wire, and has some safety features that prevent deliberately crashing it into the ground. But that it is possible to set it to go down to 6000 feet because that is within the safe ranges. But, it was low enough to crash into the mountains.

[Language]

I just can't fathom what would make an individual knowingly crash his own plane, knowing that there were 140+ other innocents on board. Absolutely heart breaking for the families.

It's one thing when there's a mechanical failure. It's another when you realize your family member, by blind misfortune, was co-piloted by such an individual. This isn't suicide, this is murder.

[Acey]

Originally Posted by nfotiu

I have no idea what I'm talking about, but it sounded like from previous posts in this thread that the Airbus is fly by wire, and has some safety features that prevent deliberately crashing it into the ground. But that it is possible to set it to go down to 6000 feet because that is within the safe ranges. But, it was low enough to crash into the mountains.

Pretty much. Well the features are to prevent operation outside of a safe envelope, which I guess indirectly means they're to prevent you from crashing into the ground. There is a system on board that has a terrain database and sort of checks it against the trajectory of the aircraft and the altimeter and will provide aural warnings as you approach the ground in an unsafe condition, but this system is independent of the flight computers and doesn't take corrective action... nor should it, as you want to be in full control of the aircraft if you're getting serious ground prox warnings.

[polak]

I just can't believe someone would do this.

Maybe someone threatened his family or something if he didn't do it? or maybe he had some sort of medical thing that caused him to lose consciousness?

I don't know. Just so crazy.

[nik-]

Originally Posted by polak

I just can't believe someone would do this.

Maybe someone threatened his family or something if he didn't do it? or maybe he had some sort of medical thing that caused him to lose consciousness?

I don't know. Just so crazy.

It can't be loss of consciousness. He had to actively reject the access code entry to the cockpit.

[FlamesAddiction]

Originally Posted by polak

I just can't believe someone would do this.

Maybe someone threatened his family or something if he didn't do it? or maybe he had some sort of medical thing that caused him to lose consciousness?

I don't know. Just so crazy.

As nik said;

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/germanw...says-1.3010045

The A320 is designed with safeguards to allow emergency entry into the cockpit if a pilot inside is unresponsive. The override code known to the crew does not go into effect, however — and indeed goes into a lockdown — if the person inside the cockpit specifically denies entry.​

Robin said Lubitz apparently pushed a button that put the plane into a descent. The jet dropped thousands of metres before it hit the ground.

It's not the first time a commercial airliner has committed murder-suicide in this manner either. It's rare, but it happens.

[Since1984]

Flightradar24 Flight path and data:

http://www.flightradar24.com/data/fl...u9525/#5d42675

[Madman]

As expected.

WestJet @WestJet
Following the tragedy in France, we are implementing a policy requiring two crew members be in the flight deck at all times.

[hwy19man]

Originally Posted by T@T

Not positive but I believe it's an international rule since 911 that when one pilot leaves the cockpit another crew member goes in until he/she returns.

Lufthansa could pay large because of this idiot.

Originally Posted by JonDuke

I don't think this is an international rule...yet.

Originally Posted by Flames89

In North America, when a pilot has to use the facilities, a flight attendant takes their place so there is never one person in the cockpit. Europe doesn't do this yet.

"Air Canada and Air Transat both said Thursday they would now ensure that there are always two people in the cockpit at all times on their flights.

"Following initial reports on the Germanwings accident, we are implementing without delay a policy change to ensure that all flights have two people in the cockpit at all times," Air Canada said in a statement to CBC News.

Air Transat's move to a two-person requirement in its cockpits will be in effect as of Friday, spokeswoman Debbie Cabana told AFP. Porter Airlines said it would not disclose its current cockpit security policy. WestJet has not yet responded to a request for comment."

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/germanwings-flight-4u9525-cockpit-security-scrutinized-after-crash-revelations-1.3010494