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It was the co-pilot — 34 Comments

  1. I’m not saying this was an Islam thing … but if I was writing a book … a thriller … and I was incorporating the Islam thing into my plot … this would be an interesting device: someone who converted, but manifested NO OUTWARD SIGNS. A western someone. With access to planes. No beard, no Mosque attendance, no Facebook posts etc. Just a deep, inner faith. I await the contents of his computers …

  2. Two people in the cockpit at all times just may have prevented this, as you write. Nobody can be entirely trusted. We get a lot of things right in this country. Surprising the uber-efficient Germans missed this logic.

  3. Amazing, and terribly sad. Just hard to fathom. I am sure there will be an intense investigation of the Co-pilot’s medical, social, and political history.

    Just got off the phone with my A320 Captain friend. He says that people like me, and others, slander the Airbus. Its engineering only protects against pilots exceeding limits. In fact, certain factors in the Airbus design mitigate against an inadvertent dive if the pilot were incapacitated, and the auto pilot engaged. Specifically, there is no control column in front of the pilot that he might slump over, disconnecting the auto pilot, and precipitating a dive. Good point that I had overlooked. Of course we now know that no one had passed out since voice recorder picked up the banging on the door by the Captain and the screams of the passengers.

    Once the door is locked, the crew can enter a code from the outside to unlock it; this is mainly for an on-ground situation when no one would be in the cockpit. However, a cockpit occupant can over ride the code, so that door remains locked.

  4. After he *took a break* from his pilot train due to burn out or depression he should
    have been ruled out as a pilot candidate.
    We all kn ow people who have suffered more than one bout of depression. Indeed some people can be tagged as chronically depressed, isn ‘t that how many of the
    homeless are described.
    Killing over 150 people deliberately so heinously must be a huge power trip for such loser individuals.
    “My life sucks but guess what I am taking you with me”
    Just like the 9/11 Jihadists.

  5. If terrorism is not a factor, I would be surprised if anti-depressants are not somehow involved. The drug companies have suppressed A LOT of history about the connection between use and murder-suicide events.

  6. “His motive? Unknown. Islamic terrorism ”

    Is this throwing stone of convence to relief yourself Neo?
    Looks you also suffering from depression…. Or more accuray conspiracy theorist…

  7. so Dr. Ben Carson yesterday publicly labels PresIVotePresentAndWondPenPhone a psychopath and is immediately chided to differentiate between psychopaths (wrong) and sociopaths (possible). A few minutes later we hear Andreas Lubitz labeled a sociopath. How peculiar.

  8. Lurch makes a good point. I was a little surprised to learn that they do not bring a second person into the C/P. Of course you don’t anticipate something like this. I expect that that barn door will be locked in the future.

    I wonder if “Lurch” is a notorious former Naval Aviator who enjoyed the same sobriquet, and had the initials JL. Of course that was not an uncommon descriptive among aviators.

  9. Neo, didn t somebody a couple of weeks ago claim that that commentator *japan* uses a computer language
    translator ? (oops I can see problems with THAT )

  10. Back in the day, mid-60s-mid70s, when I was in the Air Force, there were areas that were “No-Lone” zones and NO one was allowed to be by themselves, even security guards. An intruder could be shot on sight.

  11. The solution to terrorists or a suicidal pilot in the cockpit of a digital plane is for the plane to be taken over remotely. It won’t stop bombs, but it will stop ‘human error.’ Making a secure link would be a challenge but should not be impossible.

  12. Steve: no, it would not stop human error. It would displace it. (How long before terrorists hack into a plane remotely and force it to crash, with the pilots on board helpless?)

    It comes down to a “who will watch the watchmen?” problem. Presumably the pilot of the Germanwings plane did not see this coming, or he would not have left the cockpit… but had he known, what would he have done? How do you deter a man who plans to kill himself and a planeful of others?

  13. “Speaking of nightmares, Lufthansa chief executive Carsten Spohr is quoted as saying “not in our worst nightmare would we imagine this happening.” My answer is: if not, then you should have.”

    From the Daily Mail article;

    “A CHILLING HISTORY OF FLIGHT CREWS IN POSSIBLE SUICIDE ATTEMPTS

    EGYPTAIR FLIGHT 990

    On October 31, 1999, an EgyptAir flight crashed into the Atlantic Ocean approximately 30 minutes after leaving John F Kennedy Airport in New York.

    The Boeing 767-366 had 14 crew and 203 passengers on board.

    The National Transport Safety Board who investigated the disaster blamed the crash on the flight’s relief first officer.

    Captain Gamil al-Batouti said he would relieve the current pilot – even though he wasn’t due on the flight deck for a further three hours.

    The co-pilot remained with al-Batouti, but when the co-pilot went for a toilet break, the aircraft went into a steep dive and crashed into the sea, killing everyone on board.

    The cockpit flight recorder heard al-Batouti claim in Arabic ‘I place my fate in the hands of God’ before the aircraft hit the ocean.

    El-Batouty even shut down the aircraft’s engines, which prevented his co-pilot from saving the aircraft.

    According to the NTSB ‘the probable cause of the crash of EgyptAir flight 990 was the airplane’s departure from normal cruise flight and subsequent impact with the Atlantic Ocean as a result of the relief first officer’s flight control inputs‘.

    ‘The reason for the relief first officer’s actions was not determined.’

    SILKAIR FLIGHT 185

    A Boeing 737 with 97 passengers and seven crew crashed into the Musi River in southern Sumatra, Indonesia, on December 19, 1997.

    The NTSB investigated this crash as it involved a US-built aircraft and determined that the jet crashed due the ‘direct flight control inputs’ of the pilot, probably the captain.

    However, in both cases, Egyptian and Indonesian authorities do not accept that either of their pilots would have deliberately crashed their own aircraft.

    LAM FLIGHT 470

    On November 29, 2013, LAM flight 470 crashed on a scheduled passenger flight between Maputo, Mozambique and Luanda, Angola.

    Air crash investigators think the Embraer 190 jet was flown into the ground by the captain after his copilot went to the toilet, killing everyone.

    The jet’s captain, Herminio dos Santos Fernandes was believed to have had serious personal problems at the time of his death.

    When his co-pilot went to the toilet, flight data information recovered from the scene found that Fernandes manually changed the aircraft’s altitude from 38,000 feet to almost 600 feet below ground level.

    He also pushed the aircraft’s throttles back to idle and selected the jet’s maximum operating speed.

    Chillingly, the cockpit voice recorder picked up the sound of the co-pilot pounding on the door in an attempt to regain access to the flight deck.

    FEDERAL EXPRESS FLIGHT 705

    Auburn Calloway boarded the McDonnell Douglas DC-10 jet in Memphis, Tennessee on a flight to San Jose, California on April 7, 1994.

    He was under investigation by his employers over claims he may have over-inflated his flying experience to get a job as a flight engineer.

    The former Navy pilot carried a guitar case containing several hammers and a speargun onto the flight.

    Once airborne, Calloway entered the flight deck and attacked David Sanders, James Tucker and Andrew Peterson.

    Despite suffering grave injuries, the flight crew managed to overpower Calloway and safely land the jet.

    Calloway wanted to crash the aircraft so his family could claim the $2.5million life insurance policy.”

    Now we learn that once hired, Lufthansa does no further psychological testing of its pilots.

    So every airline in the world knows and the reason they do nothing is denial and money. This isn’t a case of ignorance or incompetence, this is a case of depraved indifference to human lives and criminally negligent manslaughter.

  14. Addendum:
    In the cases of EGYPTAIR FLIGHT 990, LAM FLIGHT 470 and now with Germanwings Airbus A320, the killer waited until his fellow pilot went to the bathroom to act. How many more times will this happen before the ‘authorities’ and airline industry drop the act that this is something unprecedented?

  15. Geoffrey Britain:

    How about one of those gizmos for peeing in a car? See this.

    I am totally serious, although I realize it would not take care of all bathroom needs.

  16. A hi-tech chamber pot ought to do the trick.

    (Or else get something from NASA.)

  17. neo,

    Or… get your GoGirl 😉

    Seriously, as others here have pointed out, no matter what precautions are taken, the truly determined will find a way to kill others. But… we don’t have to make it easy for them.

  18. Software is already embedded into the flight control systems to keep aircraft from ever repeating 9-11.

    The ONLY area that the co-pilot could pull this off was in the mountains… as the fly-by-wire system would reject suicide inputs at low altitudes.

    Modern systems don’t permit any commercial plane the capability of flying below the radar… which was a crucial factor for the Muslim atrocity of September 11th.

    The software also now includes over-rides that permit the tower to command the plane — WHEN IT’S IN RANGE.

    None of these updated protections worked in this case.

    These protections also explain the bizarre nature of MH-370. That pilot knew he had to stay away from the airport control tower.

    Such digital take-overs are massively encrypted and IIRC are not under the control of one person. The control tower staff have to be given the the balance of the digital keys to the plane.

    This is similar in logic to time-controlled safes.

    I expect that — due to the low cost of digital memories — that ever more of the Earth’s landscape will be mapped into the all the world’s commercial aircraft software — making it impossible to dial in ground collisions.

    &&&&&

    The noise heard by ground witnesses figures to be that of trans-sonic flight. The excessive pressures so generated would’ve led to a cacophony. This, without a doubt, roused even the sleepiest passengers to a fury.

    All too late.

  19. I agree with Artfldgr, on a related thread, that forcing a depressurization of the aircraft would have given the pilot the opportunity to get into the cockpit. I thought this myself as I was reading how the Airbus 320 door controls work.

    With the pilot and a hero or two on portable oxygen, poke a hole in the fuselage (easier than smashing one of those tiny but thick and strong windows) and go in swinging.

    Isn’t it great that everyone on a modern aircraft is denied the ability, tool-wise, to defend themselves, their aircraft, and innocents on the ground? If I ever fly again, it will be on the floor or on the cargo of a military aircraft.

    I won’t endure the indignities nor arrogance of the TSA, and I have a much better sense of the landscape and my companions on a MAC flight. Yes, I know, much of the same search BS applies going MAC, but Zero hasn’t destroyed the military to the degree that we don’t treat each other with dignity and respect. Mostly.

  20. I’m also formally tossing into the ring the idea that the murderer could have been coerced, by ROP types of course.

    Did he have hostages to fortune? Someone, or secret, to protect?

    He did have the opportunity to check out in a glider, without becoming a mass murderer. Just saying…

  21. Call me skeptical; but, it IS too early to make such bold statements (actually more of a J’accuse! than a statement).

    Which makes me wonder about the investigation – they don’t even have the second black box and they are coming up with this as fact?

    It is way too early without ALL the evidence looked over to be making such a statement – are they trying to hide something?

  22. I’m inclined to agree with you, charles. It’s too soon to be making definitive statements, particularly since they haven’t recovered the flight data recorder.

    My understanding is that it is a French prosecutor who is charging that the co-pilot deliberately crashed the plane. You know the saying “if the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail”. I’d assume that a prosecutor is predisposed to suspect criminal activity.

    That said, the evidence so far does indeed seem to point to the co-pilot, especially the part about the locked door.

  23. Remember the Air France flight, where the entire crew didn’t seem to understand that the plane had stalled and was plummeting.

    In this case, the A320 was descending rapidly, but not unduly so. The airspeed never became excessive. If the co-pilot wanted to crash the plane, why didn’t he simply point the nose at the ground? That doesn’t seem to have been the case here.

    I remember an incident many years ago where a Boeing 727 exceeded Mach 1 in an unplanned dive. That crew was able to regain control and landed safely. This plane never went anywhere near that fast.

  24. blert… How come I’ve never ever heard of this.. and I’m a 29 year FAA controller. Can you imagine the liabilities of a system that would override pilot input? I cannot. Maybe you know of a system that I was not briefed on. And if it is THAT secret, why on earth are you putting it in remarks on a blog?

  25. Blert those systems you describe are fantastical. I talked today to my A320 Captain friend today. Sorry, there are no such systems.

    Ricki, the A320 will not exceed its maximum speed (VMO/MMO). If the pilot programmed the auto pilot or manually pushed the joystick full down, it would go to MMO (maximum Mach) and hold that speed. It would transition to VMO as the two speeds converged at about 13,000ft or so. It would not exceed those speeds under any circumstances.

    If this copilot had disconnected the autopilot the CVR would have picked up an oral tone at that moment. There has been no mention of that, but we have not had a complete analysis either.

    Despite all of the competing theories, it sounds as though the French have got this right; unless significant further information is found.

    Over the past 40 years or so there have been the seven known or suspected pilot suicides. Interestingly, almost all of these were in cultures that attach no stigma to suicide.

  26. “Apparently from the comments at German PI — Andreas Lubitz was Muslim convert from his Facebook page.

    ISLAMIC STATE PRAISES GERMAN CO-PILOT AND MASS MURDERER—
    Another Facebook page was set up=> Support for Andrew Lubitz, hero of the Islamic State.
    (The Facebook page has since been taken down)”

    ob. cit.

  27. The notions mentioned here were pitched by the authorities over a full decade ago.

    BTW, big rig trucks and trains have also been retrofitted with kill switches. There are no Class 8 rigs now rolling in North America that have not been retrofitted — IF they are used to haul tricky stuff. The Feds keep expanding the cargoes that they deem tricky/ too sensitive.

    These kill switches are also now embedded in all new automobiles. It is for this reason that police departments across America have changed their tack: high speed pursuits are now universally frowned upon.

    BTW, the kill switches generally don’t drop the engine down to zero — they limit the speed enough to make pursuit a snap.

    The scheme devised expressly mentioned that such over-rides would ONLY be possible with the assistance of the National Command Authority. Obviously the digital keys required to jump into command would be highly classified, and never available at any control tower.

    As you might guess, the technology that permits UAVs and safe landings makes this entirely possible, practical and actually pretty cheap.

    As Snowden has fulsomely revealed, there’s a TON of hacking doing on — under the hood — WITHOUT announcing the specifics to the public.

    Any software scheme — for aircraft — would be invoked solely by the sovereign authorities. So civil liability issues are non-existent.

    Behind the scenes, digital upgrades are happening all the time.

    After films like “Executive Decision” and realities like 9-11 the Feds are not going to just sit on their hands while the fanatics work to a new atrocity scheme.

    MH-370 is yet another alert: the authorities EVERYWHERE were / still are concerned that it was being hijacked for the sole purpose of a delayed jihad — under false colors.

    Now that fly-by-wire is the state of the art, the ability to digitally take over a hostage aircraft is too great to pass up.

    Lastly, the ability of jihadis to locate and remove the kill switches is largely abated because the logic is in firmware in the bowels of the very computers required to make the aircraft fly in the first place. It’s persistent and can’t be coded around.

    Just how sneaky that can be was revealed by the blabby Russians not that many weeks ago.

    After countless hours of testing and research, Moscow figured out that it’s impossible to get rid of double-secret firmware coding. You can hack away to your hearts content — and achieve absolutely nothing.

    BTW, any furtive hacking of the air craft software is going to send it immediately into trouble-fault — and digital complaint.

    As Snowden could tell you, the Feds have got amazing digital capabilities that they’re not telling of.

    And with each atrocity, these digital defenses just get more robust.

    Nothing’s perfect. The goal is to totally frustrate AQ’s dream of a stratospheric Pearl Harbor. For those with long memories, AQ first wanted to destroy ELEVEN jumbo jets at the same time.

    Crashing the occasional jet doesn’t quite get AQ’s war of civilizations going.

    &&&

    The Internet face of the co-pilot is larded with Muslim iconography.

    So the real new rule is: don’t fly with a Muslim in the cockpit.

  28. A pilot steering a plane off course to crash it on the mountains… or is it the Plane of State? I don’t know which is the metaphor and which the reality any longer.

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