Germanwings crash: airliners change cockpit rules after co-pilot blamed – as it happened
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Sources: theguardian.com
Summary
Here are the major developments in the aftermath and investigation of the Germanwings crash in the French Alps that killed 150 people.
Co-pilot Andreas Lubitz drove the plane into the “fatal descent”that preceded the crash, a French prosecutor and the Lufthansa chief said, adding that Lubitz had locked the captain out of the cockpit. “It was a voluntary action,” said the prosecutor, Brice Robin.The intention was “to destroy the aircraft”, he said.
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Andreas Lubitz, the plane’s co-pilot, deliberately flew the aircraft carrying 149 people and himself into the mountain, French authorities said.
Lubitz deployed a five-minute override when captain Patrick Sonderheimer tried to re-enter the cockpit after briefly leaving,thwarting Sonderheimer’s attempt to punch in an emergency number that would open the door.
Lufthansa revealed that Lubitz’s training in 2009 had been briefly interrupted, but was resumed after “his suitability as a candidate was re-established”. Asked about the reason for the interruption, Spohr said he was not allowed to say.
Spohr said the company was in complete shock. It was “beyond our worst nightmare”, he said. “It leaves us absolutely speechless. I would not have been able to imagine that the situation would have got even worse.”
Relatives of the victims arrived in the hamlet near the crash site in the Alps as work continued to recover and identify remains, an effort that could last weeks. The second black box – the flight’s data recorder – has not been found yet.
Germanwings continues to have “full faith in our pilots”, the company says in a new statement in line with comments by Lufthansa executives earlier today. The statement also reiterates that Andreas Lubitz appears responsible for the deaths of 150 people.
“We are horrified to discover today that the aircraft that crashed in the south of France appears to have been crashed deliberately – probably by the co-pilot of flight 4U9525. Based on audio taken from the voice recorder, the French authorities have come to the conclusion that after the aircraft had reached cruising altitude, the captain left the cockpit for a short time and was then unable to re-enter.
“It appears that the co-pilot, who had stayed in the cockpit, prevented the captain from re-entering by fully locking the cockpit door in order to then initiate the fatal descent. All Germanwings and Lufthansa employees are deeply shocked. We could never have imagined that a tragedy like this could occur within our company.
“Yet even after this terrible event, we have full faith in our pilots. They remain the best in the world; this event is an extremely tragic isolated incident.
“We share in the sadness, shock and incomprehension of the bereaved families and friends and that of millions of other people.”
In the German town of Haltern, home to 16 students and two teachers killed in the crash, shock and anger has set in with the “nightmare” of the day’s revelations, the AFP reports.
“Personally, I’m stunned, angry, speechless and deeply shocked by the latest news,” said Bodo Klimpel, mayor of the small northwestern town of Haltern where the students went to school.
“I’m asking myself when this nightmare will end,” Klimpel told a televised news conference after investigators said they believed the 28-year-old co-pilot of the Germanwings jet, Andreas Lubitz, had deliberately slammed a jet into the French Alps, killing himself and the other 149 people on board.
“It’s bad enough for the families to learn of the death of loved ones in an accident. But when it’s clear that an individual may possibly have deliberately caused the accident, it takes on an even worse dimension,” Klimpel said.
The FAA, the US aviation authority, has released a Q&A about cockpit safety and pilot health screening for US airliners, excerpted below.
“What are US rules that apply when pilots leave the cockpit? US airlines have to develop procedures that the FAA approves. Those procedures include a requirement that, when one of the pilots exits the cockpit for any reason, another qualified crew member must lock the door and remain on the flight deck until the pilot returns to his or her station.
“What kind of psychological screening does the FAA require for pilots? US scheduled airline pilots must have a first class medical certificate. The pilot must renew the certificate every year if the pilot is under 40 years old, every six months if the pilot is 40 years old or older.
“FAA medical requirements for pilots: Airline pilots undergo a medical exam with an FAA-approved physician every six or twelve months depending on the pilot’s age. The FAA does not release pilot medical records, including the results of any pilot’s medical testing, because medical information is covered by privacy laws. …
“The AME will typically ask questions about psychological condition as part of his/her assessment, and the AME can defer any examination when he or she believes additional psychological testing may be indicated. … The pilot must self-disclose the information requested and give explanations to all yes answers. The AME will use this self-disclosure to ask additional questions about mental health issues.The AME can order additional psychological testing. …
“Additionally, if the FAA receives information from another source that a pilot may have a mental health issue, the FAA’s Office of Aerospace Medicine can direct the pilot to provide specific documentation and/or a psychiatric and psychological evaluation from a mental health care professional in order to make a determination about the pilot’s suitability for certification.”
There is some disagreement about the age of Andreas Lubitz, the co-pilot who by all appearances deliberately crashed the Airbus 320, killing himself and 149 others.
French prosecutor Brice Robin saying earlier today that he was 28 but Düsseldorf authorities saying he was 27, according to the local newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung.
German media have meanwhile identified the captain as Patrick Sonderheimer. A Lufthansa colleague has told Europe1, a French website, that Sonderheimer was “one of the best”.
As at least four airliners implement the “rule of two” people in the cockpit at all times, my colleague Holly Watt examines European and American air safety rules in the wake of the Germanwings crash.
The US Federal Aviation Authority said in a statement: “US airlines have to develop procedures that the FAA approves. Those procedures include a requirement that, when one of the pilots exits the cockpit for any reason, another qualified crew member must lock the door and remain on the flight deck until the pilot returns to his or her station. A qualified crew member could be a flight attendant or a relief pilot serving as part of the crew.”
The UK’s Civil Aviation Authority said it was “co-ordinating closely” with the European aviation agency in the aftermath of the Flight 0525 crash, after it emerged that the 27-year-old pilot Andreas Lubitz apparently deliberately crashed an Airbus plane, killing everyone on board.
French officials said Lubitz appeared to have locked his fellow pilot out of the cockpit and deliberately crashed the plane.
The interior cockpit of the crashed Germanwings A320 aircraft. Photograph: Marius Palmen/EPA
According to rules set out by the European Aviation Safety Agency, pilots must remain at their “assigned station” throughout the flight, “unless absence is necessary for the performance of duties in connection with the operation or for physiological needs”.
At this point, one pilot can leave the cockpit provided “at least one suitably qualified pilot remains at the controls of the aircraft at all times”.
American airlines have different systems for minimising the risk to pilots while flying, which often involve using food carts as makeshift barricades.
“Every airline in the United States has procedures designed to ensure that there is never a situation where a pilot is left alone in the cockpit,” said a representative for the Air Line Pilots Association in America.
EasyJet, Norwegian Air Shuttle, Air Transat and Air Canada announced new rules on Thursday. You can read the full piece here.
Half the 150 people killed in the crash of Germanwings Flight 4U9525 were German, Lufthansa has confirmed, up from an earlier estimate of 72.
The German victims include 16 teenage students and their two teachers and two opera singers, one with her husband and infant child. Fifty Spanish nationals were on board, junior security minister Francisco Martinez has said. There were also at least three British nationals, three Americans, two Australians, two Argentines, two Mexicans, two Colombians, two Venezuelans, a Chilean, Belgian, Dane and Dutch person.
Kazakhstan has said that three of its citizens were killed in the crash, as were two Moroccans, two Iranians and an Israeli.
German police have begun to search the home of Andreas Lubitz for any hint of what caused the co-pilot – qualified, trusted and showing no signs of psychological distress – to crash a plane and kill himself and 149 others. Although by appearances fit for duty, one gap in the the man’s story suggests something wrong, my colleagues Ian Traynor and Louise Osborne report.
Lubitz had taken a break of several months from his pilot training. Carston Spohr, Lufthansa’s chief executive, said there was nothing unusual about this but that he could not and “may not” give the reason for this for reasons of medical confidentiality.
The Lufthansa boss said the interruption in the training occurred six years ago. A journalist from Der Spiegel, reporting from Montabaur, cited acquaintances as saying that the break in 2009 was because of stress – “because of burnout or depression.”
Spohr said Lubitz was judged fit to resume the training scheme a few months later and then passed all the medical, psychological, and flying tests.
The interior ministry in Berlin ran security and intelligence checks on both pilots on Tuesday, said Thomas de Maiziere, minister in charge. The data bases were scoured.
“There is no indication of any kind of terrorist background,” he said.
Lubitz apparently lived in the small town of Montabaur with his parents, but also had an apartment in Dusseldorf. At his parents’ house in Montabaur on Thursday, the curtains were drawn and four police cars were parked outside.
German chancellor Angela Merkel has urged people not to jump to conclusions before investigators can do their work, and even friends and families of the victims have expressed reservations through their shock.
Ulrich Wessel, head teacher of the school, told the AFP that although he feels “angry, perplexed, stunned,” he did not want to hypothesize whether Lubitz was suffering from depression or another condition: “We don’t know whether he was psychologically ill, and whether he was in a position to gauge the consequences of his decision. That would be speculation.”
Air Canada is changing its rules to require two people in the cockpit at all times, AP reports.
Spokesman Peter Fitzpatrick says the airliner is implementing the new rules “without delay” but did not disclose the company’s former policy.
The FAA has not yet responded to the Guardian’s queries about its rules or recommendations regarding cockpit security, but my colleague Amanda Holpuch (@holpuch) spoke with Aaron Karp, a senior editor at Air Transport World, who is combing FAA regulations looking for a rule.
Karp said that it is standard airline policy to require two people in the cockpit.
“The impression I am getting is that it is just something that most US airlines implemented for domestic flights, it may have been something that the FAA recommends, but I’m not sure there is a list of rules and regulations that says this has to be the case,” Karp said.
He thinks airlines implement this practice so that someone knows what is going on in case their is a medical emergency in the cockpit.
Here are the key developments in the aftermath of the Germanwings crash.
The co-pilot forced the plane into the descent that led to the disaster, the Marseille public prosecutor said, after locking the captain out of the cockpit. “It was a voluntary action,” said the prosecutor, Brice Robin. The intention was “to destroy the aircraft”.
The co-pilot deployed a five-minute override when the captain tried to re-enter the cockpit after briefly leaving, thwarting the captain’s attempt to punch in an emergency number that would open the door.
Unlike many US carriers, European airliners generally do not require two people in the cockpit at all times. Lufthansa does not voluntarily implement such a protocol, and the company said that it was not aware of any of its competitors that have such a procedure. EasyJet and Fly Norwegian announced they would adopt new rules.
Lufthansa revealed that Lubitz’s training in 2009 had been briefly interrupted, but was resumed after “his suitability as a candidate was re-established”. Asked about the reason for the interruption, the CEO, Carsten Spohr, said he was not allowed to say.
Spohr said the company was in complete shock. It was “beyond our worst nightmare”, he said. “It leaves us absolutely speechless. I wouldn’t not have been able to imagine that the situation would have got even worse.”
Relatives of the victims arrived in the hamlet near the crash site in the Alps as work continues in retrieving remains and their identification, which may last weeks. The second black box has not been found yet.
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