V-Flyer

Deeply worrying this one...

Rather puts things into perspective doesn't it?

Distress call had been made by the aircraft, so a good chance that authorities already have a fair idea of the crisis that initiated the rapid loss of altitude....

Indeed - something like this always makes one count ones blessings .

Tragic news

How absolutely awful and no survivors. Like you say, makes one appreciate how fragile our lives can be.

Awful- I heard this on the radio just as DB was letting me know she was about to leave LAX for HNL.
I know she tells me off for worrying when she's travelling but accidents like these remind me that it could be any one of us involved.

DL

Awful News, The airline have confirmed that not distress call was issued by the Aircraft, and that the alert was raised by ATC after they observed the descent without clearance.

Also hearing now that 1 Black Box has been recovered!

Just read on the internet that the Captain was locked out of the cockpit, sounds a bit suspicious, if true.

Just discussing it on BBC. Sounds like one of the officers left the cockpit, returned with a gentle tap and "can you let me back in" which turned into an attempt to break the door down. How absolutely horrifying.

Someone on the radio was saying that many airlines have a rule that if a pilot leaves the cockpit a cc goes inside so there is never a case of there only being one person left alone in the cockpit. Apparently Germanwings doesn't have this rule. Don't know how true any of this is !

I expect every airline will soon!

I cannot imagine how terrifying this scenario must have been for those on board. On a 320 everyone will have had a full view of the second pilot trying to desperately break down the door, as the plane descended.Truly horrific.

We may never know what actually happened. It may be secondary to suicide/ mass murder/ sudden death of the pilot/ terrorism. Aircraft fault seems unlikely- surely in such a case he would have quickly opened the door for the second pilot to gain entry to the cockpit?

Unattributed source posted by NYT in the middle of the night and picked up by other outlets.

I'll wait until the French BEA confirm it.

Yes, a long, long way to go in this investigation.

All sorts of scenarios fit the known facts (which are few in mumber).

There is much that leads me to believe that this flight crew did nothing wrong outside the accepted norm, and may even have achieved more than reasonable under horrrendous circumstances.

Specoluation is a natural reaction to such an event - how could that happen? How can I rationalise it...

There is such interest in this, I feel sure the BEA wil release information as early as they are able, but they will take time to make sure it is acurate.

Long way to go...

Now saying the co-pilot deliberately crashed the plane. There are no words

Terrible news if it's confirmed that it was indeed deliberate.

Alas this is nothing new, and has happened before several times. The industry really needs to get a handle on how these incidents can be prevented whilst maintaining cockpit door security.

Yes, but the official investigation haven't said that.

The known facts certainly point to a deliverate act, but there are other possibilities and it would be awful to just assume that's what happened to find out later it was differnnt.

Concorde RIP wrote:Yes, but the official investigation haven't said that.

The known facts certainly point to a deliverate act, but there are other possibilities and it would be awful to just assume that's what happened to find out later it was differnnt.

I think the way this has been announced it seems it is unfortunately true.
If there was any doubt they wouldn't have announced it.

It does look like that, but the announcement was made by Marseille prosecutor Brice Robin,
Who is not part of the official BEA investigation team.

I can see a scenario whereby he is given information then puts 2 and 2 together making 5...

Unfortunately, he may well be right, but this FO is currently being accused guilty before the court (BEA) have had chance to complete the full trial.

Concorde RIP wrote:It does look like that, but the announcement was made by Marseille prosecutor Brice Robin,
Who is not part of the official BEA investigation team.

I can see a scenario whereby he is given information then puts 2 and 2 together making 5...

Unfortunately, he may well be right, but this FO is currently being accused guilty before the court (BEA) have had chance to complete the full trial.

I agree with you Concorde, the finger has been pointed very quickly and not necessarily with all the facts. This is a beyond terrible scenario that needs a proper, thorough investigation to help this never to happen again.
My thoughts are with the families of those affected

Unfortunately, all evidence - including switching off auto-pilot, and performing a manual descent - points to a deliberate mass-murder. Horrible. Any traveler's worst nightmare...

As an aside, I heard on BBC World Service that Virgin Atlantic has adopted the "at least two in the cockpit" rule.

The news just seems to get worse and worse.