"This is your captain speaking. I need this line of passengers slapping that woman to move towards the cockpit door. Thank you."
Posted on 03/27/2015 8:14:20 AM PDT by Red Badger
As they plunged towards their deaths, one of the last things seen by passengers and cabin crew near the front of the Germanwings Airbus A320 was their captain, Patrick Sonderheimer, desperately trying to smash down the door of the cockpit.
For several minutes on Tuesday morning the airliner had been inexplicably descending from cruising altitude towards the Alps with its engines idle.
(Excerpt) Read more at thetimes.co.uk ...
Sec. 91.513 — Emergency equipment.
(a) No person may operate an airplane unless it is equipped with the emergency equipment listed in this section. (b) Each item of equipment—
(1) Must be inspected in accordance with §91.409 to ensure its continued serviceability and immediate readiness for its intended purposes;
(2) Must be readily accessible to the crew;
(3) Must clearly indicate its method of operation; and
(4) When carried in a compartment or container, must have that compartment or container marked as to contents and date of last inspection.
...........
(e) Each airplane accommodating more than 19 passengers must be equipped with a crash axe.
Source:
http://www.risingup.com/fars/info/part91-513-FAR.shtml
My suggestion, a couple of days ago, was a emergency override command that comes from ground control that would unlock the cabin door if the pilot or co-pilot were locked out due to some reason such as this. The crew could contact the controller and declare their emergency via a second radio link from the passenger cabin.
I haven’t ridden on a train since 1962 when I was 7 years old, but I remember there was a line along the bulkhead above the windows that a passenger or conductor could pull to notify the engineer to come to a emergency stop. There should be some sort of similar ‘panic button’ or other device that could be initiated to send out a emergency signal to notify authorities that a situation was going on that required their override command to gain access to the cockpit.................
Sounds from the voice recorder seemed to indicate that was what was going on, but they won’t know for sure until they do find the remains of the cockpit door and can determine if that was the case................
Journalists are most likely not pilots.............
Only if it’s marked for ‘Emergency Use Only’............
Government bureaucrats are not the brightest bulbs on the Christmas tree..........
That's where it was kept when I was a FA.
Video link with the cockpit and cabin views could tell the controllers which side of the door the truth was on............
"This is your captain speaking. I need this line of passengers slapping that woman to move towards the cockpit door. Thank you."
God rest their souls, just so horrific. Imagine the mothers holding those two babies, it is just heart wrenching.
Axes are a necessary piece of emergency safety equipment. There are valid reasons why they are kept aboard.
And the fact is that the door locks aren’t there to prohibit outside access to the cockpit; they’re there to buy enough time for the attendents and passengers to subdue and restrain the person trying to get into the cockpit.
My point exactly. They are required equipment. My post was directed at those who seem incredulous that there was an axe on board. As a fireman, I know they are very versatile tools.
Planes descending as if to land,only mountains no civilization out the windows, people are screaming, mass hysteria..
Sorry not fast enough
You’d think that they would put a combination lock on the door, rather than relying on whomever was inside.
Yup sure would.....Door aint coming down and lets say it did after what 2 3 minutes there would not be enough time to get that monsters nose back up.
There is a combo lock, but whoever was inside the cockpit set the 3 position lock to override the ability of anyone outside to get in.
Yup, just expanding a bit on what you posted.
The truth is that, post-911, anyone who gets their hands on the axe will be using it to fend off the people trying to take it away (and probably then use it to bludgeon that person to death). Which in most cases other than transoceanic flights will allow the pilots to put the plane on the ground safely.
There are a lot of items on planes that can be used as weapons. Some years ago a friend of mine, on his way down the aisle, snagged one of those demo seatbelts used by the attendents as part of their departure routines. He and i played around with it, found it was very easy to wrap it around you hand, buckle out, and use as a form of brass knuckles.
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