Report: France jet audio shows Germanwings pilot locked out of cockpit

[webfact]

Report: France jet audio shows pilot locked out of cockpit
By GREG KELLER and ELAINE GANLEY

SEYNE-LES-ALPES, France (AP) — The first half of Germanwings Flight 9525 was chilling in its normalcy. It took off from Barcelona en route to Duesseldorf, climbing up over the Mediterranean and turning over France. The last communication was a routine request to continue on its route.

Minutes later, at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, the Airbus A320 inexplicably began to descend. Within 10 minutes it had plunged from its cruising altitude of 38,000 feet to just over 6,000 feet and slammed into a remote mountainside.

To find out why, investigators have been analyzing the mangled black box that contains an audio recording from the cockpit. Remi Jouty, the head of France's accident investigation bureau BEA, said Wednesday that it has yielded sounds and voices, but so far not the "slightest explanation" of why the plane crashed, killing all 150 on board.

A newspaper report, however, suggests the audio contains intriguing information at the least: One of the pilots is heard leaving the cockpit, then banging on the door with increasing urgency in an unsuccessful attempt to get back in.

"The guy outside is knocking lightly on the door and there is no answer," The New York Times quotes an unidentified investigator as saying. "And then he hits the door stronger and no answer. There is never an answer."

Eventually, the newspaper quotes the investigator as saying: "You can hear he is trying to smash the door down."

The investigator, whom the newspaper said could not be identified because the investigation is continuing, said officials don't know why the pilot left. He also does not speculate on why the other pilot didn't open the door or make contact with ground control before the crash.

Since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, airlines in the U.S. don't leave one pilot alone in the cockpit. The standard operating procedure is that if one of the pilots leaves — for example to use the bathroom — a flight attendant takes their spot in the cockpit. It was not immediately clear if European airlines have adopted the same practice.

The names of the pilots have not been released.

French officials gave no details from the recording on Wednesday, insisting the cause of the crash remained a mystery. They said the descent was gradual enough to suggest the plane was under the control of its navigators.

"At this point, there is no explanation," Jouty said. "One doesn't imagine that the pilot consciously sends his plane into a mountain."

Jouty said "sounds and voices" were registered on the digital audio file recovered from the first black box. But he did not divulge the contents, insisting days or weeks will be needed to decipher them.

"There's work of understanding voices, sounds, alarms, attribution of different voices," the BEA chief said.

Confusion surrounded the fate of the second black box. French President Francois Hollande said the casing of the flight data recorder had been found in the scattered debris, but was missing the memory card that captures 25 hours' worth of information on the position and condition of almost every major part in a plane. Jouty refused to confirm the discovery.

French officials said terrorism appeared unlikely and Germany's top security official said there was no evidence of foul play.

As authorities struggled to unravel the puzzle, Hollande, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy converged on the remote accident site to pay their respects to the dead — mostly German and Spanish citizens among at least 17 nationalities.

"This is a true tragedy, and the visit here has shown us that," Merkel said after she and Hollande overflew the desolate craggy mountainside.

Helicopters ferried in rescue workers and other personnel throughout the day. More than 600 rescue and security workers and aviation investigators were on site, French officials said.

Germanwings CEO Thomas Winkelmann said the airline was in the process of contacting victims' families. He said the 144 passengers and six crew members included 72 Germans, 35 Spaniards, three Americans and two people each from Australia, Argentina, Iran, Venezuela, and one person each from Britain, the Netherlands, Colombia, Mexico, Japan, Denmark, Belgium and Israel.

The three Americans included a mother and daughter, the U.S. State Department said. Some of the victims may have had dual nationalities; Spain's government said 51 citizens had died in the crash.

Two babies, two opera singers and 16 German high school students and their teachers returning from an exchange program in Spain were among those who lost their lives.

The principal of Joseph Koenig High School, Ulrich Wessel, called the loss a "tragedy that renders one speechless."

In Spain, flags flew at half-staff on government buildings and a minute of silence was held in government offices across the country. Parliament canceled its Wednesday session.

Barcelona's Liceu opera house held two minutes of silence at noon to honor the two German opera singers, Oleg Bryjak and Maria Radner, who were returning home after a weekend performance at the theater.

Germanwings canceled several flights Wednesday because some crews declared themselves unfit to fly after losing colleagues.
___

Ganley reported from Paris. Thomas Adamson, Lori Hinnant and Sylvie Corbet in Paris; Kristen Grieshaber in Haltern, Germany; David Rising and Geir Moulson in Berlin; Alan Clendenning and Jorge Sainz in Madrid; Michael Corder in The Hague, Netherlands, and AP Airlines writer Scott Mayerowitz in New York contributed to this report.


-- (c) Associated Press 2015-03-26

[ezzra]

Is that a rerun of Egypt Air flight 990 whereby the pilot locked every body out and plunge the

aircraft into the ocean???

[kotsak]

Possible for the other pilot to have suffered a heart attack or anything else that left him incapacitated.

[colinneil]

Please do not speculate until the FULL facts are known.

A terrible tragedy, many young people gone. R.I.P.

Condolences to all the families of the victims.

[impulse]

Given that I can get hours of video on a chip the size of my fingernail, I can't imagine any excuse not to require Cockpit Video Recorders (with audio).

[Steely Dan]

Possible for the other pilot to have suffered a heart attack or anything else that left him incapacitated.

In which case it was unfortunate he managed to lock the cockpit door before having a heart attack.

[kartman]

Possible for the other pilot to have suffered a heart attack or anything else that left him incapacitated.

In which case it was unfortunate he managed to lock the cockpit door before having a heart attack.

The door would lock automatically no point in having a unlocked cockpit door during a flight nowadays in an aircraft.

[mauGR1]

Possible for the other pilot to have suffered a heart attack or anything else that left him incapacitated.

In which case it was unfortunate he managed to lock the cockpit door before having a heart attack.

The door would lock automatically no point in having a unlocked cockpit door during a flight nowadays in an aircraft.

Right, but if " kotsak " hypothesis is what truly happened, airlines should consider having a third pilot in the cockpit.

[MJCM]

I have a question that a pilot can answer, when do pilots engage the Autopilot, is that after reaching Cruising altitude or before ?

[MJKT2014]

Possible for the other pilot to have suffered a heart attack or anything else that left him incapacitated.

In which case it was unfortunate he managed to lock the cockpit door before having a heart attack.

The door would lock automatically no point in having a unlocked cockpit door during a flight nowadays in an aircraft.

The door should be able to open from outside by a co-pilot code to get into cockpit, but this can be turned off from inside cockpit - source CNN news today.

[neverdie]

I have a question that a pilot can answer, when do pilots engage the Autopilot, is that after reaching Cruising altitude or before ?

It varies mate but is normally way before reaching cruising, sometimes a full auto take off can be done on the sophisticated a/c.

Not like the good old days when we man handled the big birds

[neverdie]

Possible for the other pilot to have suffered a heart attack or anything else that left him incapacitated.

In which case it was unfortunate he managed to lock the cockpit door before having a heart attack.

The door would lock automatically no point in having a unlocked cockpit door during a flight nowadays in an aircraft.

Right, but if " kotsak " hypothesis is what truly happened, airlines should consider having a third pilot in the cockpit.

Just like the good ole days when we use to have a flight engineer or a second officer.

It's also fantastic for emergencies.

Would certainly lessen the chance of this sort of thing happening unless you had two nut cases or three

[MJCM]

I have a question that a pilot can answer, when do pilots engage the Autopilot, is that after reaching Cruising altitude or before ?

It varies mate but is normally way before reaching cruising, sometimes a full auto take off can be done on the sophisticated a/c.

Not like the good old days when we man handled the big birds

Thanks, the reason why I asked is because the flight had been on its cruising altitude for only a short while and then started its decent.

[MaxYakov]

Is that a rerun of Egypt Air flight 990 whereby the pilot locked every body out and plunge the

aircraft into the ocean???

That isn't what happened with Egypt Air 990 (Wiki). There was, according to the CVR and FDR, a fight for control between the First Officer (flying) and the Captain (returning to the flight deck).

Maybe the Germanwings pilot flying wanted to avoid such a scene with the other pilot and others - pure speculation on my part. Please accept my apologies, colinneil. It was a tragedy, whatever the cause.

[MaxYakov]

Given that I can get hours of video on a chip the size of my fingernail, I can't imagine any excuse not to require Cockpit Video Recorders (with audio).

Don't hold your breath waiting for that to happen. People, besides you, have the excuses at the ready. They're called pilots.

[neverdie]

I have a question that a pilot can answer, when do pilots engage the Autopilot, is that after reaching Cruising altitude or before ?

It varies mate but is normally way before reaching cruising, sometimes a full auto take off can be done on the sophisticated a/c.

Not like the good old days when we man handled the big birds

Thanks, the reason why I asked is because the flight had been on its cruising altitude for only a short while and then started its decent.

Different airlines have different policies about how and when the auto systems are to be used.....the airlines love the auto systems as they apparently save money on running costs as the computers finely tune and trim the a/c to make it run lean.

In the good old days highly skilled drivers were all the go....the handsome fellow in the foreground of this picture was the flight engineer, the second officer sat behind him and the captain....the f.o . Is on the right in front if the flight engineer .

Often you had captains with 20k hours, f.o.s with 12-15000 & flight engineers with at least that.

The flight engineer would control the throttles and closely monitor all systems and report to the captain.

This was back in the day when airmanship counted for EVERYTHING and dik head accountants were ignored....now it's the other way around.

[neverdie]

BTW Johnny Travolta sti flies around In one of these babies, he's got the shorter version but ohhh what a bird.....these babies were the real deal.....real wood material.

I also managed to slot my backside into a 747SP.....one of the originals with the FE Station at the rear of the cockpit.......these lovely aircraft were the last of the best, their pilots the very best of the best.....and boy they were some performance aircraft.....I've got some wood now.

[billd766]

Please do not speculate until the FULL facts are known.

A terrible tragedy, many young people gone. R.I.P.

Condolences to all the families of the victims.

Too many keyboard pilots and accident investigators on Thai Visa.

They are starting to outnumber the "special forces" people.

[neverdie]

Take a look at the beautiful airmanship in this video.

Try doing this in an A320.

You wouldn't even be able to find a driver that knows how to make it happen lol

[BlackJack]

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

[Tchooptip]

We know the names of the pilots?

Even though the question was asked one million times by journalists of European press ...no answer for the time being.

[Tchooptip]

Take a look at the beautiful airmanship in this video.

Try doing this in an A320.

You wouldn't even be able to find a driver that knows how to make it happen lol

Thanks for the link... incredible

[Suradit69]

Possible for the other pilot to have suffered a heart attack or anything else that left him incapacitated.

Which is why in the US one person is never supposed to be left alone in the cockpit. If one pilot goes out, a cabin steward is supposed to join the remaining pilot until the other returns. Not sure if the same rule is in effect in Europe, but it seems a logical safety measure for just this sort of situation.

[MikeOboe57]

Possible for the other pilot to have suffered a heart attack or anything else that left him incapacitated.

In which case it was unfortunate he managed to lock the cockpit door before having a heart attack.

The door would lock automatically no point in having a unlocked cockpit door during a flight nowadays in an aircraft.

You can always open the door by typing in the correct code. There is however the possibility to lock the door from the cockpit side with a bolt. This would require the remaining pilot to leave his seat and push the bolt - something he would not do in case of a heart attack or similar incapacitation.

It is being described in detail (without revealing sensitive information) on pprune.org

[MaxYakov]

Take a look at the beautiful airmanship in this video.

Try doing this in an A320.

You wouldn't even be able to find a driver that knows how to make it happen lol

Maybe they can program it into the flight control computers and sell it as an optional features for thrilling the passengers. Or maybe the passengers are getting enough thrills already flying with AIRBUS.

[F4UCorsair]

Possible for the other pilot to have suffered a heart attack or anything else that left him incapacitated.

In which case it was unfortunate he managed to lock the cockpit door before having a heart attack.

Locking tbe door is mandatory since 9/11, with both or one pilot Iin the cockpit. It's not left to pilot discretion, and a code/password is required to enter, discussed and agreed with cabin crew prior to takeoff.

[Chicog]

Take a look at the beautiful airmanship in this video.

Try doing this in an A320.

You wouldn't even be able to find a driver that knows how to make it happen lol

Maybe they can program it into the flight control computers and sell it as an optional features for thrilling the passengers. Or maybe the passengers are getting enough thrills already flying with AIRBUS.

I've seen cockpit video of an airbus test pilot doing an F1 fly by at very low speed and altitude.

Talk about alarms going off!

[zydeco]

We know the names of the pilots?

Even though the question was asked one million times by journalists of European press ...no answer for the time being.

And when Malaysian Air and the Malaysian government didn't give up everything they knew immediately, the press and social media (including TVF) tore into them like a ravenous wolves. Now, not hardly a peep. Something is really strange, here.

[Roota]

Try doing this in an A320.

Well it's been done in an A380. There's a video or two around.

[MaxYakov]

Take a look at the beautiful airmanship in this video.

Try doing this in an A320.

You wouldn't even be able to find a driver that knows how to make it happen lol

Snipped: Famous video of a barrel-rolling 707/Dash 80

Maybe they can program it into the flight control computers and sell it as an optional features for thrilling the passengers.

Or maybe the passengers are getting enough thrills already flying with AIRBUS.

I've seen cockpit video of an airbus test pilot doing an F1 fly by at very low speed and altitude.

Talk about alarms going off!

Thanks. I suppose they didn't mistake 30 feet of altitude for 100 feet like Air France Flight 296

(which I bet they wish they had flight deck video of).