A rule requiring two crew members in the cockpit at all time, in place since a deranged lone pilot slammed a Germanwings vacation flight into a French mountainside, is being ended by airlines that say it’s no longer necessary.
The crash occurred while the other pilot had stepped out of the cockpit to use a lavatory. After the investigation turned up the suicide pilot’s long history of depression and lack of treatment for it, Germanwings, and other Lufthansa subsidiaries, implemented a rule that another crew member had to sit in while either of the pilots was out.
That rule, which was already in force for U.S. airlines and a number of others, will be ended June 1, according to regulatory filings. The association of German airlines (BDL) says that there is now better mental health care for pilots, and that opening the cockpit door for two people to pass rather than one makes it easier for a terrorist to seize a plane.
