That is horrible and so sad for the victims. Besides terrorism what else could it possibly be beside him wanting to kill himself. Especially if he was acting normal. It just makes so sense to me. Was it planned? How did he know for sure the pilot would leave or did he just figure when he got close to the Alpes he would find fight the pilot? Its so crazy.
RIP to the victims. I feel for their families. Its one thing to think it was an accident. Its another to know someone intentionally killed a loved one.
dude checked out way before the flight even pushed back, so it likely was planned. However, i doubt investigators will recover any evidence of it as i assumed he kept it to himself.
as for the timing, it was roughly 25-30 mins after departure, so at a relatively low stressful stage of flight. Take-off up until cruise and descent till landing are the most stressful stages of flight and requires all of the crew's undivided attention. So the captain was totally fine and legally allowed to leave his position for the bathroom and i'm thinking the first-officer even recommended he do so (hence the sound of the chair moving back). It was at this point that the first-officer locked the door and initiated the descent.
Should pilots have a key to the cockpit door?
i'm not sure how it is on boeing, but on airbus, the lever is located on the lower section of the panel on the captains side. Three switch lever: unlock, norm and lock. If in the norm position, once a person leaves the cockpit, they will be able to re-enter it using an access code or another method. However, if in "lock", there is no way anyone is getting inside...code, the other method or not.
@Exiled Martian @Blackrogue @Serious @Liu Kang @BonafideDefacto
more so for rogue if your based outta NBO as this took place in africa....there was a more recent accident in 2013 involving a pilot suicide. TM-470.
A LAM Linhas Aereas de Mocambique Embraer ERJ-190, registration C9-EMC performing flight TM-470 from Maputo (Mozambique) to Luanda (Angola) with 28 passengers and 6 crew, was enroute at FL380 over northern Botswana in clear weather when the aircraft suddenly began to descend at about 6000 feet per minute until radar contact and radio contact was lost with the aircraft at about 11:30Z
On Dec 21st 2013 Mozambique's Civil Aviation Authority reported in a press conference (the preliminary report has not yet been released by Namibia's Accident Investigation Commission), that cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder revealed, that the captain was alone on the flight deck, banging on the flight deck door could be heard on the cockpit voice recorder. The autoflight systems (autothrottle and autopilot) were engaged. There were sounds and clicks consistent with a person knowledgeable of the aircraft systems commanding the engines to idle thrust and selecting the autoflight systems into a descent at 6000 feet per minute. Numerous warnings and alerts were not responded to.
We can now see the flip side of the same measures implemented to protect us from terrorists post 9-11.
what i see happening in the future:
- Sterile Cockpit Rules being revamped. Completely. Having an extra crew member in the flight deck once another leaves being mandatory and crew being trained on what to do in the event such as this unfortunate one happens (only drawback here is, if a pilot is hell bent on comitting suicide, he/she can and will do anything in their power to over power the other person, including killing him/her to take control of that flight)
- Live (real time transmission recording) camera's in the cockpit
- Remote flight monitoring and pilot override (sorta like how they operate drones)
the affect? pilots becoming less important, perhaps pay being slashed or even worst, the career being completely replaced (highly unlikely).
in any case, it really will now be about seeking a balance between safety and security. Airlines will be carefully watching how this investigation unfolds and I see major changes in the industry happening after this.