My guess is the canopy above the flight deck ripped open causing instant incapacitation of the flight crew. This would only leave seconds for anyone in the passenger compartment to respond before loss of cabin pressure knocked them out. But at that altitude there is not much anyone can do. If reports are correct and there was a sustained 8 minute decent this would make sense as the flight controls were not effected but autopilot was not active. However the autopilot would have maintained a steady course but I do not know SOP of Germanwings and autopilot use on regional flights.
And no... The flight deck is not behind a separate pressure bulkhead. Lose the cockpit in an instant lose the entire plane. Cockpit and cabin are all in the pressure vessel. There are no aircraft, to my knowledge, that have a pressure vessel for the passenger compartment and the cockpit.
Like I said I am only guessing. Analysis of the windshield and structures around the cockpit will reveal a lot, if they can find any pieces. In all my experience I have never heard of such an incident like I am suggesting because the windscreen and flight deck are the most heavily ‘fortified’ structures on the plane. The closest thing I can recall is the flight between Hawaii and the mainland where the passenger compartment blew apart mid flight killing a flight attendant but not destroying the entire aircraft. It is a damned tragedy regardless.
There have been two crashes on planes (2 fatalities) I have directly worked on and it hits the entire company personally (both instances were pilot error). We work our asses off to design and build the safest most reliable aircraft available. IN fact we don’t even refer to the plane as a number but as “John Doe’s plane.” After a while, we end up calling the planes by the customer’s name as if it is a part of them. We meet the pilots and the owners. It is a very personal experience building planes. If that makes sense. When a plane goes down, we lose a family member. Not giving too much away since I worked in Wichita, Berlin, and Dallas.
Hope this makes sense.
Regards
Opie
My guess is the canopy above the flight deck ripped open causing instant incapacitation of the flight crew. This would only leave seconds for anyone in the passenger compartment to respond before loss of cabin pressure knocked them out.
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except for that minor detail that there was banging and pounding on the cabin door right up to the crash.