Airbus A320 crashes in France - Germanwings flight with 150 onboard

[Chicog]

(ANSA) - Rome, March 26 - The co-pilot of the crashed Germanwings flight that killed 150 people apparently had the "deliberate intention" to down the plane into the Alps, a French prosecutor told a news conference Thursday. He said that the co-pilot activated controls to put the plane into a dive and was alive at the time of impact, according to data retrieved from the black box. The passengers on board the Tuesday flight, including a student group, would have been aware of what was happening and screaming during descent, the prosecutor added.

He has been named, not that that makes a difference as I didn't know him.

What a terrible act.

[zydeco]

Picture of Lubitz, here. http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/andreas-lubitz-germanwings-co-pilot-first-5404279

[DavisH]

Interesting, re: locking procedure of the cockpit door. We can see that is the toggle is on the lock position, noone will be entering the cockpit.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2015/mar/26/airbus-safety-video-shows-cockpit-door-entry-procedure-germanwings-crash?CMP=twt_gu

[zydeco]

Apparently, Lubitz was 26 years old when hired as a pilot directly out of flight school. A 26 year old without even so much as being put through the very mild rigors of the German air force. I don't like the idea of being flown around by immature 26 year olds. Egad, this guy could have crashed the plane because he was mad at his girlfriend or sad because he lost his iPhone. Shouldn't these guys be seasoned a bit before they get control of the fates of 149 other people?

[Lukecan]

Apparently, Lubitz was 26 years old when hired as a pilot directly out of flight school. A 26 year old without even so much as being put through the very mild rigors of the German air force. I don't like the idea of being flown around by immature 26 year olds. Egad, this guy could have crashed the plane because he was mad at his girlfriend or sad because he lost his iPhone. Shouldn't these guys be seasoned a bit before they get control of the fates of 149 other people?

Why would a pilot earning 70-80k euros per year be sad that he lost his iphone.

It could be a girlfriend thing tho.

[barismanco]

France’s interior minister, Bernard Cazeneuve, has told RTL radio all options must be looked into to explain why the Airbus A320 ploughed into an Alpine mountainside on Tuesday but a terrorist attack is not the most likely scenario.

[manarak]

France’s interior minister, Bernard Cazeneuve, has told RTL radio all options must be looked into to explain why the Airbus A320 ploughed into an Alpine mountainside on Tuesday but a terrorist attack is not the most likely scenario.

wow, heh... thanks for clarifying that !

[NeverSure]

Andreas Lubitz Germanwings co-pilot: First picture as it's revealed he deliberately flew jet into Alps.

12:19, 26 March 2015

"Andreas Lubitz, the 28-year-old German co-pilot of the doomed Germanwings plane deliberately slammed the jet into the ground after locking himself in the cockpit."

Mirror

[manarak]

Apparently, Lubitz was 26 years old when hired as a pilot directly out of flight school. A 26 year old without even so much as being put through the very mild rigors of the German air force. I don't like the idea of being flown around by immature 26 year olds. Egad, this guy could have crashed the plane because he was mad at his girlfriend or sad because he lost his iPhone. Shouldn't these guys be seasoned a bit before they get control of the fates of 149 other people?

it doesn't have much to do with age in my opinion, the majority of pilots ending their life this way were over 40.

[jacky54]

maybe time to put three in the cockpit?

[manarak]

Well, Andreas Lubitz, this was an incredibly EVIL act.

If you wanted to die in a plane, why didn't you just use a small plane on your day off? Why did 149 other people have to die?

[Exsexyman]

Well, Andreas Lubitz, this was an incredibly EVIL act.

If you wanted to die in a plane, why didn't you just use a small plane on your day off? Why did 149 other people have to die?

The thing that puzzles me about the suicide theory is that on a relatively short flight like this how could Lubitz have possibly known that the Captain would need to leave the cockpit to use the toilet. He can't have. So could this have been a spontaneous act, a moment of madness? Doesn't really seem likely. Whatever, a truly horrendous act if it was deliberate. The poor passengers, their last few minutes on earth just doesn't bear thinking about.

[NeverSure]

It's being reported that on the audio voice recording they can hear the perp breathing all the way to impact, can hear "very violent" knocking on the door and they can hear passengers screaming.

The only solace is that the victims never knew they hit, going at that speed.

It's so sad. RIP.

LINK

[siam2007]

Apparently, Lubitz was 26 years old when hired as a pilot directly out of flight school. A 26 year old without even so much as being put through the very mild rigors of the German air force. I don't like the idea of being flown around by immature 26 year olds. Egad, this guy could have crashed the plane because he was mad at his girlfriend or sad because he lost his iPhone. Shouldn't these guys be seasoned a bit before they get control of the fates of 149 other people?

If you don't like young Co-Pilots flying at such an age, then I strongly recommend you to never ever in your life board an Aircraft in Asia......

[balo]

I have a problem to accept this suicide theory but if it is this is a terrible news for anyone that love aviation and flying. .

What if he had a disease like diabetes or a heart condition so he could not open the door ? But the door was shut from the inside deliberately so I guess this 28 year old really did this ? He wanted to kill himself and 150 passengers ? I just can't understand this. Pilots are the last persons you would suspect of being mentally ill.

[Lukecan]

Well, Andreas Lubitz, this was an incredibly EVIL act.

If you wanted to die in a plane, why didn't you just use a small plane on your day off? Why did 149 other people have to die?

The thing that puzzles me about the suicide theory is that on a relatively short flight like this how could Lubitz have possibly known that the Captain would need to leave the cockpit to use the toilet. He can't have. So could this have been a spontaneous act, a moment of madness? Doesn't really seem likely. Whatever, a truly horrendous act if it was deliberate. The poor passengers, their last few minutes on earth just doesn't bear thinking about.

You're basically trying to say that pilots dont use the restroom on short flights. As a matter of fact they do, as soon as the captain left, he took the controls locked the door and crashed the plane, simple as that. Maybe something like this happens in 1 out of every 5-6 flights, when it happened he took advantage of it.

Its very rare that a plane crashes en route without a major malfunction or suicide.

Edited March 26, 2015 by Lukecan

[Grouse]

600 hours and alone on FD of A320!

Insane. Enough of this short cut training.

Need to get back to proper training and proper rewards.

IMHO

[NeverSure]

Apparently, Lubitz was 26 years old when hired as a pilot directly out of flight school. A 26 year old without even so much as being put through the very mild rigors of the German air force. I don't like the idea of being flown around by immature 26 year olds. Egad, this guy could have crashed the plane because he was mad at his girlfriend or sad because he lost his iPhone. Shouldn't these guys be seasoned a bit before they get control of the fates of 149 other people?

If you don't like young Co-Pilots flying at such an age, then I strongly recommend you to never ever in your life board an Aircraft in Asia......

Young pilots can be some of the best, especially now when they grew up with computer games and developed reflexes. Flying requires a gift - a talent and a love for it like many other things such as sports or music. I've seen pilots with many hours and lots of training who shouldn't be flying because they didn't have the natural "knack." Others are just naturals.

A lot of fighter pilots are just kids, LOL.

[Grouse]

We need real aviators. That requires skill and experience.

Hiring direct from flight school and putting straight into an Airbus is just not a good idea.

Maybe the airline saves money but ultimately it's risky.

Flying an airplane with 150 pax is not trivial. You might want to consider the whole package of training, experience, package, support and so on...

[NeverSure]

This crash didn't occur due to lack of training or experience. Pilots go to flight school which is like college and the ones I know get a bachelor's degree out of it. Then they are further trained by an airline in planes and simulators and only then are they allowed to be a copilot which is basically more training.

I don't have a problem with his age or number of hours as a copilot. I'd like to know why he took such a long break from flight school and how he was vetted personally.

[Grouse]

Yes, there are certainly some open questions to be answered!

I still hold that 600 hours is not enough to be left in charge of a passenger jet.

Also this screwing down on pilot's pay and conditions is a bad move...

[Lukecan]

The plane was deliberately crashed. The pilot could of been 65 years old. Age is not the issue here. The younger a person starts pilot training, the better his muscle memory develops. The best fighter pilot ever, manfred richtoften died when he was 25, he had 80 air combat victories to his name. Just saying.

[Grouse]

Also this pilot / co-pilot business is not useful. Typically the captain and FO are PF on alternate legs. So you really need a competent aviator in both seats.

Historically this was achieved after CPL via, say, bush flying and small turbo props and then on from there. There's a limit to what you can learn in the sim.

Clearly there's much more to come out in this case though....

[Grouse]

I agree, age is not an issue. Experience is.

It's a high stress, high responsibility job

Putting inexperienced possibly inadequately rewarded and highly pressured young pilots directly on the line is just unwise IMHO

[Lukecan]

I agree, age is not an issue. Experience is.

It's a high stress, high responsibility job

Putting inexperienced possibly inadequately rewarded and highly pressured young pilots directly on the line is just unwise IMHO

There are thousands of 20 something old pilots out there. Do you see them commiting suicide, or making a major pilot error?

This pilot in question probably had some mild form of schizophrenia that went undetected.

[NeverSure]

I agree, age is not an issue. Experience is.

It's a high stress, high responsibility job

Putting inexperienced possibly inadequately rewarded and highly pressured young pilots directly on the line is just unwise IMHO

Sorry, you're on a roll but completely irrelevant. This didn't occur due to lack of training or age. The guy was good enough to lock the captain out and fly the plane into a mountain. I would like more actual new news and less that's completely irrelevant.

[Lukecan]

Maan like every section of this forum has a huge grudge against young people

[george]

BREAKING NEWS

GERMANWINGS CRASH

Alone at controls, co-pilot sought to 'destroy' the plane
LORI HINNANT, Associated Press
DAVID McHUGH, Associated Press

Evidence indicates alps plane crash was "deliberate"

PARIS (AP) — The co-pilot of the Germanwings jet barricaded himself in the cockpit and "intentionally" rammed the plane full speed into the French Alps, ignoring the captain's frantic pounding on the cockpit door and the screams of terror from passengers, a prosecutor said Thursday.

FULL STORY: http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/812219-alone-at-controls-co-pilot-sought-to-destroy-the-plane/

[MikeOboe57]

I agree, age is not an issue. Experience is.

It's a high stress, high responsibility job

Putting inexperienced possibly inadequately rewarded and highly pressured young pilots directly on the line is just unwise IMHO

Sorry, you're on a roll but completely irrelevant. This didn't occur due to lack of training or age. The guy was good enough to lock the captain out and fly the plane into a mountain. I would like more actual new news and less that's completely irrelevant.

Interesting link found on pprune about the copilot:

http://aviation-business-gazette.com/A44/B58/Pilot-Andreas-Guenter-Lubitz-Rheinland-Pfalz-.html

[manarak]

Also this pilot / co-pilot business is not useful. Typically the captain and FO are PF on alternate legs. So you really need a competent aviator in both seats.

Historically this was achieved after CPL via, say, bush flying and small turbo props and then on from there. There's a limit to what you can learn in the sim.

Clearly there's much more to come out in this case though....

there aren't enough small planes to fly for pilots to get the kind of experience you are talking about.

also, the problem here wasn't skill or experience.

as I said earlier, suicide in the cockpit is mostly a thing of older pilots.

Andreas Lubitz had a screw loose in his head which unfortunately maintenance couldn't fix.

and no psychological assessment procedures can claim to detect 100% of problems people may have - or get - one pilot stole an airplane and crashed it into 2 others some years ago because he couldn't cope with having caught HIV...

That being said, it could be a good idea to study the feasibility of giving ground control means to override certain things or even to take complete control of the aircraft if technology allows that.