Dumb question; as this is a low-cost carrier owned by Lufthansa, why is the name Germanwings and not, say, Deutsch Flügeln (which is how Google translates the name into German)? In short, why did they give it an English name?
There are no systems in place for that. It has the potential to generate a huge number of false alarms and become a dangerous distraction. What would be the gain?
The authority to declare an emergency rests on the flight crew. If ATC notices something amiss they will check, as they did in this case.
In the US anyway, ATC can declare an emergency on behalf of the crew. Not that it would have made any difference here.
Look, it’s silly to devise elaborate schemes for something that has something like 1-in-100,000,000 chance of happening (there are around 100K flights a day. Do the math).
The more I think about this, the more I think there was a rush to judgment. Seems to me they should wait for the data recorder to come back and confirm some of their assumptions. The fact that they heard the guy breathing normally doesn’t prove that he was indeed conscious and in control. I think they need to positively rule out a medical crisis before they blame the co-pilot.
It’s a pretty peculiar medical crisis that makes someone lock the cockpit door, set the airplane on a descent that is steep but not steep enough to violate the allowed flight envelope, and then (I presume) conk out?
Right. I misspoke there, didn’t correct on time, thanks.
That happened in this case too.
No, a ruptured AVM, could do it quite nicely, it’s just not a common event. We’ll never know from the remains, though.
The FDR will contradict all that. Also, if it was an emergency you’d expect some audible alarms on the CVR as well.
It doesn’t matter. The casing is irrelevant. The only truly important part is the data collection thingy, everything else can be burned, crushed, and destroyed but as long as that bit - which is the most well armored bit in the whole thing - survives you can get data.
Having the data separate from the casing makes it harder to find, but should they find it the data should be intact and extractable.
Er… the “mountian up ahead” sort of is “the ground”, isn’t it?
There are a bunch of reasons that could happen - lack of money, family crisis, all sorts of things.
Yep.
It may require some soundfile manipulation and analysis but they can often pick that out of the CVR.
Yep, that would probably result in a gasp.
But a guy willing/determined to kill himself might maintain normal breathing the whole way down.
Um… because irrational people aren’t rational?
Because it was “controlled flight”. Leaning on a stick would cause changes in airspeed inconsistent with “controlled flight”. Reports are that it looks like the autopilot was adjusted. We’ll have to wait for the FDR data to confirm that specifically, but any unconscious act is pretty much ruled out already.
I heard on BBC Newshour this morning that he was trained 6 years ago. I’d expect more flight hours.
That could cause someone to adjust the autopilot? Or manually fly controlled but descending? I suppose a stroke could cause irrational but controlled behavior; does that happen?
If the FDR yields data, we will know whether flight was autopilot or manual, and what happened on the controls.
I’m not sure why this is hard to comprehend. I have never been suicidal therefore I have no idea what kind of mindset you have to be in for suicide to seem like the best option available. You cannot rationalise any actions of a suicidal person because it is not a rational act. You cannot say he took 150 people with him therefore he is an arsehole or it is ideological. All you can say is he was mentally in a place that you have no experience with therefore your conclusions (that are based on your own experiences) are invalid. That said, it could be everything, he could be an ideologically motivated suicidal arsehole.
Stealing a plane would be pretty difficult anyway. Depending on the airport setup it might be impossible.
Yes breathing is easily picked up. One of the more annoying things that certain pilots do is forget to turn their mic off when they are not speaking. You are left with the sound of them breathing, munching on something, sighing etc.
A group of German pilots are doubting the suicide story.
Suicide/mass-murder seems most likely based on what we know right now, but it might be too soon to be certain.
“German Pilots Association”. Doubting is part of the job description.
the only rational explanation was a stroke or heart attack but that I believe has been discounted. He deliberately set the plane to descend to 100 feet. Under no circumstances would that be done in the mountains. It’s a guaranteed destruction of the plane. He then went on to disable the electronic door lock with a 5 minute override. The whole thing was timed to destroy the plane.
The co-pilot took a year off from training for psychological reasons. He then went on to complete his training. I really don’t see any other possibility at this point. It was a deliberate act done with forethought. The reason appears to be psychological.
How so?
How so?
Amen, Brother.
Do they know that? I thought they only have the CVR in which case they wouldn’t know what altitude was set.
I also wondered how they would know that the co-pilot set the altitude to descend to 100 feet. I finally read that apparently this setting is part of the data transmitted by the transponder. News to me.
Satellite link.