In the wake of the Germanwings crash that killed 150 in an apparent suicide-by-pilot, Lufthansa and many others are quickly adopting rules requiring at least two crew members be present inside the cockpit at all times. Lufthansa’s announcement covers all its operations, including Germanwings, Austrian Airlines and Swiss International.
Air Canada, Easyjet and Norwegian Air Shuttle also made similar announcements, and the European Aviation Safety Agency is expected to make it mandatory for all European airlines. U.S. rules already required a second person in the cockpit; if the pilot or co-pilot leaves, an authorized flight attendant stays in the cockpit.
MORE info from USA Today
I don’t know if there were two people or not in the cockpit the time the Egypt Air Pilot allegedly crashed that plane ,but I can’t imagine it would stop a pilot bent on doing that. And we don’t require two bus drivers with controls when going on mountainous journeys.
I looked at a list of hijackings and attempts and after 2001 the attempts haven’t been successful I think in part because of the doors and the fact that crew and passengers don’t remain passive anymore.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki…aft_hijackings#2010s
Good points, Rob…although I think a second pilot, not a flight attendant, could have grabbed the controls and/or during those 8-10 minutes have opened the door and gotten help. Remember also that the original purpose of multiples in the cockpit was to deal with strokes, heart attacks, etc. Far more likely a passenger could stop the bus than fly the plane.
I certainly can’t see any harm in it.
I’ve been told that airline staff have a “back” way into a locked cockpit to be used only in an emergency(a contingency). Not sure why that wasn’t used this time — perhaps it never dawned on the flight crew what was actually happening until it was too late.
The back door is the second, emergency, code. It was used, but it can be overridden for 5 minutes from within.
Looks like that 5 minute policy will need to be revisited.
I think I have to differ sharply with you on aspects of this issue.
When you say that “whoever established that 5 minute rule is somewhat complicit in this,” I think you are pointing the finger in the wrong direction. That system was the product of careful thought and consensus. You are right: there are no published reports hijacking a cockpit (and yes, there ARE a number of reports of attempts). That is because the cockpit security rules have succeeded in their aim.
Where the finger of blame needs to be pointed is at an industry and its regulators that have made it possible for one person to be alone in the cockpit and do this. The third pilot (engineer/navigator) is long gone from the cockpit, and except for the U.S. no one even required an additional crew member (a flight attendant) to sit in when one of the pilots is out.
To remove the system that allows the cockpit occupants the power to secure the controls when all other measures have failed would be foolish and fatal. To ensure that it is always under the command of at least two licensed and trained staff must be made a requirement everywhere. As must a system of regular medical and psychological checks by airline or government doctors (so that someone like Lubitz cannot hide the findings).
As I said earlier, no system can be perfect. But the likelihood of two pilots conspiring, or even of one attempting such a thing when the other is able to resist or block is infitesimal.
I saw a good article that points out just how safe flying really is. He was talking about 2013 but 2014 was even safer. As far as murderous pilots ,I’m sure statistically that’s extremely low too. It’s a horrible tragedy and we openly see it on the news ,but safety is one thing we have to give the airline industry some credit. The outsourcing of maintenance is what would be my biggest concern on the industry
A couple of quotes.
“Around 3 billion people boarded some 35 million flights, each of them traveling over 500 miles per hour in an aluminum tube 7 miles above the earth. And only 224 died. That’s simply an incredible number.”
“About 2,900 people are killed by hippos in the average year.”
Read the rest:
http://airfactsjournal.com/2014/01/won-safety-battle/
Lufthansa has been in dispute with its pilots for over a year.
“Lufthansa’s industrial relations problems hit services for a tenth time in 2014 with pilots again taking action”
Perhaps the last straw for the angry young man.
There was mention in the news coverage that planes can be controlled from the ground. It seems to me that the 2 person rule, combined with planes equipped so that settings from the cockpit can be overridden from the ground, would go a long way in the right direction.
It’s very difficult to see exactly what to do, and I doubt that every contingency can be provided. The 5-minute lock is intended to deal with the situation of a crewmember, knife at throat, giving up the second code.
If a second staff member were in the cockpit…that’s about the only way to deal with a maniac like the Germanwings co-pilot. No guarantee…but a much better shot.
I do think the security doors have been good because its prevented hijackings. I just don’t see any answer though to a pilot or copilot wanting to crash the plane .
It’s a horrible tragedy but flying on a commercial airplanes is so safe compared to other forms of transportation. For some reason ,we don’t worry about taking buses or vans or driving our own cars even though the risk is far greater.
I actually thought a bit about this today, and I’m going to go at this from a different approach.
While we seem to think that a locked cockpit door makes flying safer, we have no evidence of that. There have been no (published) attempts of terrorists wanting to hijack a cockpit since 9-11. A shoe and underwear bomber, yes, but that didn’t directly involve taking control of the plane. I would agree that it SEEMS to be a deterrent, but so is all the rest of the TSA song and dance.
We have now had several instances of “Murder-by-pilot” (note I specifically am not referring to it as suicide). The locked cockpit door with 5 minute code delay in this case was all the guy needed to commit one of the greatest acts of mass murder in some time. Whoever established that 5 minute rule is somewhat complicit in this. I know we’re all supposed to say that that person’s intentions were so very honorable and good, and how was he to know some pilot would kill a plane full of people. Well, if he institutes regulations like this, he/she should have thought about it before locking everyone out of the cockpit while there’s a madman in charge. Pilots are the problem on aircraft today, not terrorists. Yes, of course not all pilots, and yes of course flying is still relatively safe.
I do know that if it was my rule that cost 150 people their lives (and grievously hurt hundreds of surviving family members), I would have a hard time sleeping.
You do raise some good points with medical conditions, but those occur while driving too .I do it think it would be almost impossible to get to the bus driver in time if he drove off a cliff or bridge and also some bus drivers are driving children. We seem to accept those small risks in other forms of transportation and life.
I think we can all accept accidents happening. We do not accept a murderer using public transportation to kill large numbers of people. Planes are high profile because of the tremendous data we can retrieve when it crashes, which usually allows us to understand what happened to make it crash. Also because of the large number of passengers involved and lastly the tremendous cost of the planes. And yes, flying is still the safest way to travel.
Going through Rob’s link, there are hijack attempts, usually from people who want to be taken somewhere or who are making a statement. There’s little in there about someone wanting to take over the planes controls to crash it.
I stand by my point. As surprising as it may be to many, something created by “careful thought and consensus” can have serious flaws. There is no universal collective genius that gets it completely right, and often the more people involved in these decisions, the more watered down they are. Today, almost 14 years after 9-11, a strong argument can be made that a far greater danger exists on the far side of the locked cockpit door than on the side we see sitting in our seats. A rare danger, yes, but a risk nonetheless. If something good comes out of this tragedy it is hopefully that mechanisms will be put in place to deal with the threat in the cockpit. These plans also won’t be perfect, but it’s time to try something different. I think we can all agree on that.
And those five minute most probably would have saved these 150 lives. I’m glad I’m not the genius on the consensus committee who came up with that number.
The reason the danger appears to be on the inside of the cockpit is that there are effective mechanisms for keeping intruders out. Remove those, and you remove that.
Now, as I pointed out above, comes the need to reduce the risk from within by both requiring more than one person in the cockpit, and by more effective mental and physical screening of pilots. We have enough passenger screening…now we need the rest.
I saw a Delta ad for the first time this morning, not apparently a new slogan, but given new meaning by recent event…”Keep climbing”.