One Pilot Locked Out in Germanwings Crash

NYTimes:

PARIS — As officials struggled Wednesday to explain why a jet with 150 people on board crashed amid a relatively clear sky, an investigator said evidence from a cockpit voice recorder indicated one pilot left the cockpit before the plane’s descent and was unable to get back in.

A senior French military official involved in the investigation described a “very smooth, very cool” conversation between the pilots during the early part of the flight from Barcelona, Spain, to Düsseldorf, Germany. Then the audio indicated that one of the pilots left the cockpit and could not re-enter.

“The guy outside is knocking lightly on the door, and there is no answer,” the investigator said. “And then he hits the door stronger, and no answer. There is never an answer.”

He said, “You can hear he is trying to smash the door down.”

While the audio seemed to give some insight into the circumstances leading to the Germanwings crash on Tuesday morning, it also left many questions unanswered.

“We don’t know yet the reason why one of the guys went out,” said the official, who requested anonymity because the investigation was continuing. “But what is sure is that at the very end of the flight, the other pilot is alone and does not open the door.”

The names, nationalities and most importantly, the religions of the two pilots have not been released.

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One Response

  1. The latest information is that yes, he crashed the plane deliberately, but no, he does not appear to have been a Muslim: he was a born-ethnically-German named Andreas Lubitz. Unless it turns out that he had secretly converted to Islam, it seems that this particular mass-murder/ suicide is just…one of those things. Sh*t happens. But this particular sh*t might still not have happened if not for Islam…because, tragically, security precautions re. cockpit doors and locking of same from inside – instituted as a result of the 9/11 jihad hijacking – appear to have enabled Mr Lubitz’s act of suicide-murder, for they allowed him to lock his co-pilot out of the cockpit.

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