Breaking: Germanwings Pilot Was Locked Out of Cockpit Before Crash in France

The circumstances seem very similar to Egyptian air flight 990.

EgyptAir Flight 990 (MS990/MSR990) was a regularly scheduled flight from Los Angeles International Airport, United States, to Cairo International Airport, Egypt, with a stop at John F. Kennedy International Airport, New York City. On 31 October 1999, the Boeing 767-300ER operating the route crashed into the Atlantic Ocean about 60 miles (100 km) south of Nantucket Island, Massachusetts, killing all 217 people on board.[1] The cause either deliberate crash or mechanical failure – is disputed.


The NTSB investigation fairly quickly centred on the actions of the relief first officer, Gameel Al-Batouti, and this drew relatively minor criticism from Egyptians.[18] The NTSB determined that the only way for the observed split elevator condition to occur was if the left seat pilot (the captain's position) was commanding nose up while the right seat pilot (the first officer's position) commanded nose down. As the Egyptian investigation forwarded various mechanical failure scenarios, they were each tested by the NTSB and found not to match the factual evidence. The NTSB concluded that no mechanical failure scenario either they or the Egyptians could come up with matched the evidence on the ground, and that even if mechanical failure had been experienced, the 767's design made the situation recoverable.[1]

Egyptian air flight 990

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: aynock

Or make him try twice as hard to get in, so he can help him with whatever it is.

I would think not hearing anything from the only person who can save you from dying would make the pilot who is locked out try anything possible in order to get in there, maybe even enlist the help of a passenger to break the door down. At the very least, passengers seeing the locked out pilot not hear anything back from the pilot in the cockpit would freak out and wonder why he isn't responding.

Letting the locked out pilot know you're at least awake and trying to get things under control would seem a LOT better than not saying anything at all and letting imagination run wild.

So to resume the situation, they've put locking doors to protect against terrorist but that "solution" make it vulnerable to:

1- Chain of failure where the one in the cockpit have a medical problem and they did not respect procedure of two persons in the cockpit.

2- A terrorist slipping in while they did not respect procedure of two persons in the cockpit.

3- Chain of failure where the one in the cockpit have a medical problem and the door no longer allow entry (as pointed-out by Zaphod).

4- Person in the cockpit wanting to commit suicide.

5- Terrorist killing all persons in cockpit (they learned emergency entry procedure on the internet), then protect themself from the passagers by locking the door.

If it was a co pilot medical emergency, I imagine the last moment of the pilots life were terrifying, a quick wee and you don't imagine anything could happen.

If they made crashing a plane fool proof, the government couldn't carry out any of it's false flags or diversions. They don't want a hero, they want results.


You will never have the perfect working door!

OK. We finally have some answers. Will the LHC/CERN Crowd be satisfied with this answer?
Or will it come down to the pilot suffering a Cardiac arrest due to magnetic interference of his pace maker?

Any flight I've ever been on since 9/11 .. the pilot will call the flight attendant..as the pilot is in the lavatory. The flight attendant will block access to the forward lavatories till the pilot is done. Then the pilot will call into the cockpit and be let back in...




FYI: if you have a known medical condition such as hypertension or risk of stroke... you can not fly. And pilots have to under go check ups.


So no person with a pace maker is flying. Strike that out.
However an undiagnosed issue is still a factor.

a reply to: ManiShuck

Sure, sitting here analyzing things afterwards. At the time he may not even have heard the pilot knocking if he was concentrating on a problem with the plane.

what would be the odds of one pilot quietly succumbing or being incapacitated due to a medical problem while the other pilot is outside of the cockpit?

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: aynock

Or make him try twice as hard to get in, so he can help him with whatever it is.

i'd like to think an airline pilot could keep a cooler head than that - trying to smash your way through a terrorist proof door would be an absolute last resort surely? - it's somewhat indicative of panic imo

i think if there was a problem, the pilot trying to solve it would communicate something to the one locked out - basic human instinct

my guess is either deliberate or incapacitation

If the investigators heard someone say "Allah'u'Akbar" inside the cockpit just before the crash, would they let people know?
It's a question some may be asking themselves, so it would be nice if they would comment on it either way.

a reply to: aynock

It could be deliberate or incapacitation...but, seriously, the odds that the co-pilot would have a heart attack or pass out
at the same time the pilot left the cockpit are almost astronomical.

This feels deliberate.

originally posted by: oddnutz

what would be the odds of one pilot quietly succumbing or being incapacitated due to a medical problem while the other pilot is outside of the cockpit?

I say pretty good considering posture. Legs not being stretched.... Blood clots come to mind.

Further info from the flight data recorders will be needed.
If they show no malfunction with the controls or some sort of decompression issue with the cabin, then we are left with the copilot and his health/state of mind.
If he was not incapacitated due to a health issue, then they will see that he was deliberately descending.
He could have been a suicidal nutbag.

Oh.... one other thing to cloud things more. The plane did change heading during the descent... didn't it?

a reply to: Bigburgh
It is true that pilots must pass regular medical checkups to be "flight ready". As the medical officer told my Dad, when he was in the Air Force, "You do not have migraines. That would affect your flight status."

a reply to: Zaphod58

It was quite a long descent and they have said that light knocking can be heard on the CVR and later loud banging. This sort of implies there wasn't a lot of noise in the cockpit to stop him hearing banging on the door

a reply to: aynock

Pilots are still people. Even highly trained people panic.

originally posted by: IAMTAT
a reply to: aynock

It could be deliberate or incapacitation...but, seriously, the odds that the co-pilot would have a heart attack or pass out
at the same time the pilot left the cockpit are almost astronomical.

This feels deliberate.

This isn't meant in a confrontational way..

I never understood this mentality of conspiracy folk that because something is hard to imagine then it feels deliberate or nefarious. Life doesn't happen in a vacuum or go by a nice controlled timeline.

If the co-pilot has a heart attack , stroke or something else then it is going to happen when it is going to happen regardless of what the pilot is doing.

All that being said, their isn't enough info yet to say it's one thing or the other.

a reply to: biggilo

I was talking about him concentrating so hard on doing other things that it didn't register. Not that it couldn't be heard.

a reply to: shaneslaughta

Only if it was set to land, and not cruise.

a reply to: gwynnhwyfar

Yes if it is found out, you are grounded.
But yes I admit there are other unseen factors that show up out of the blue.
Mental health is a big factor as well.
Suicide is not out of the realm of possibilities yet.

But to me if it were a suicide. The the 8 min controlled decent wouldn't hold water in my opinion.
That plane would have nosed dived at full speed.

But it's still early to tell.