Jesus christ he just flew it into the mountain, at almost cruising speed? Terrifying. Apparently cries could be heard in the final moments

tsk tsk

I guess the ideal solution would be to have 3-person crew in cockpit AND a small toilet.

We may barely know what's going on in our own heads a lot of the time.

Joel, take off your tin foil hat and stop talkin crazy

I am not comforted by the presence of a stewardess in the cockpit when one pilot leaves. Don't our pilots carry guns?

Time to arm the stewardesses!

LOL. The "monsters we are fighting every day"? Is that from page 3 of the FOX/GOP hysteria book?

Some of us live in reality. We don't live our lives scared every single second of every single day thinking everywhere we go, someone is secretly plotting to kill us.

I've been off since Sunday night and haven't been around other pilots to discuss this.

Other than your voyeuristic interest, what value would such a video provide? If any such videos (or messages) are found, you can be certain they will be played on an infinite loop on the 24-hour cable news shows.

The CVR used to be an analog audio recording and, you're right, it was on a 30-minute loop (just continually writing over itself). The CVR is now a digital device and since 2008 the FAA has required at least two hours of audio recording (both ATC and ambient cockpit audio). The FDR is also a digital device and I'm sure it records at least the last hours of data, but I can't seem to find a reference for that.

You can't really expect me to give specifics on this in a public forum


It probably wasn't on autopilot, but there's no reason it couldn't have been. The autopilot will gladly accept a large descent rate (the pilot sets a Vertical Speed in feet per minute).

Very, very far. We do have remotely piloted planes (drones) and UAVs, used by the military, but that's a far cry from self-flying.

That's true. Public perception plays a big role.

Do I smell an AMA thread?

(glad you're back and survived the Dengue)

How much of a deterrent is it, actually to have someone else present on the cockpit at all times? Serious question. Whether the guy was a suicide or a terrorist, he had to plan this.

Wouldn't it be relatively easy to incapacitate an unsuspecting co-worker? I'm curious to know if anyone who is knowledgeable thinks this would tip the scales for someone to choose or not choose to do this?

because of the terrorists who monitor 2p2?

"or" doesn't apply there. if he purposefully killed a plane full of people, he is doing a lot more than suicide.

It might be easy but I don't know. Inflicting that kind of person to person violence is quite different from relatively calmly steering a plane into the ground. Psychologically it might be a deterrent for some, but not for all.

It might tip the scales for certain people, as it might be harder to choke someone to death than to slowly fly a plane of 150 into a mountain.

But the other benefit would be with the lock system. Bathroom pilot enters their code to get back in to the cockpit, and then the cockpit pilot and flight attendant would both have to enter their code to deny him. If one or both are incapacitated, door opens automatically after 20 seconds and air traffic control is notified.

Now the suicidal pilot could still choke the pilot that went to the bathroom and lock the door again, but you've added some barriers.

It very much does apply. Murder isn't necessarily terrorism.

I don't think that's how the door system works.

when I worked in general aviation @ HPN there was one doctor on the list that everyone went to because rumor had it that he passed anyone who was breathing (these were 3rd class medicals). All the old timers who had single engine a/c parked on the field used him.

However there is def. room for improvement regarding the screening, especially the mental aspect.

The news this morning -

http://www.theguardian.com/world/201...ays-prosecutor

Would all of you duplicitous liberals stop saying contradictory things out of the different sides of your mouths, please?

Call it terrorism, call it murder, call it some other newspeak name which makes you feel safe - the fact is that some nutcase brought down a plane for reasons as yet unknown. This wasn't an accident, the engines didn't stall as some others immediately concluded. Admit that this was foul play, and regardless of whether it's terrorists or homicidal maniacs who happen to have day jobs as pilots, these things are happening all too frequently for anyone, including all the brave and fearless souls in this thread, to feel just a bit queasy the next time they fly somewhere.

"Robin said Lubitz could be heard breathing right up until the point of impact, suggesting he had not lost consciousness."

Wouldn't he be breathing even if he was unconscious?

Kv, I can't trust what you say until you prove to me that you're not a duplicitous liberal pretending to not be a duplicitous liberal.

There'd definitely be value to crash investigators in seeing what was happening around the cockpit door -- was pilot really locked out / banging to get back in, etc. -- if the authorities were still trying to piece together what actually happened. But seems like they've already determined it was murder-by-pilot, so maybe not as important now.

Is 630 hours an appropriate amt of flying experience to be the co-pilot on an A320? Seems shockingly low?

I assume they mean 630 hours as an A320 co-pilot.

this is what I was thinking. But if he passed out, he wouldn't have been able to physically change the flight characteristics to put the aircraft into a controlled decent.

In yet another sad twist for all involved, CBS Radio News correspondent Elaine Cobbe reported that families of the crash victims were brought near to the site of the crash Thursday to mourn. Lubitz' family also was there, but were being kept apart from the other families.

yeah, no ****.