[McGruff]

Ready for this?

Did Germanwings plane’s windscreen CRACK? Pilots of flight 4U 9525 may have been incapacitated after oxygen level plunged

Reports on professional pilot forum suggest black box voice recorder reveals ‘structural failure’ caused disaster

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3010610/French-alps-crash-French-alps-Germanwings-plane-crash-Lufthansa-GWI9525-4U9525-Airbus-A320-Barcelonnette-Alpes-Hautes-Digne-Les-Bains.html

[Tzfat]

Reports on professional pilot forum suggest black box voice recorder reveals ‘structural failure’ caused disaster

It would make some sense. For that scenario, it would need to be sufficient to kill and/or incapacitate both pilots AND the automation.

Otherwise, it just keeps flying until it runs out of fuel, the A320 will not descend without a pilot telling it to.

[zipper]

Thanks for the link.

From the story: 10.30am - when the pilots were apparently chatting away - and 10.31am when contact was lost.

Well, at least we know both crewmembers were in the cockpit when it happened (whatever it was). I wondered if there was only one pilot in the cockpit at the time (restroom break for the other one, etc).

Those windows are very thick and laminated -- if one pane cracks the window should stay structurally intact. Not that it's impossible, it's just down the list of likely possibilities.