This week’s Germanwings crash into the French Alps has prompted airlines to change their safety policies to ensure there’s always a second crew member in the cockpit.
On Wednesday, the low-cost carrier’s A320 carrying 150 passengers fell from the sky while travelling from Barcelona to Dusseldorf.
Although original reports suggested the aircraft may have been at fault, officials are now say the co-pilot, Andreas Lubitz intentionally crashed the plane.
Authorities confirm the co-pilot intentionally locked the pilot out of the cockpit.
According to The Guardian, Lubitz locked the captain out of the cockpit and deployed a five-minute override when he tried to re-enter.
This disabled the captain’s chances of using an emergency number to open the door.
Germanwings, its parent company Lufthansa along with French authorities confirmed Lubitz’s involvement in the crash.
According to Lufthansa, the 27-year-old German has been flying with the company since September 2013 and showed no signs of physical or psychological distress.
“You can never exclude such an individual event. No system in the world could manage to do that.”
Carsten Spohr, Germanwings CEO
The airline has taken to Twitter to express its distress about the situation:
We are shaken by the upsetting statements of the French authorities. Our thoughts and prayers continue to be with the families… 1/2
— Lufthansa (@lufthansa) March 26, 2015
Germanwings has also released a statement, saying despite the incident it has full faith in its pilots.
In the statement, the airline said its pilots ‘remain the best in the world’ and stressed that the event is an ‘extremely tragic isolated incident’.
“We are horrified to discover today that the aircraft that crashed in the south of France appears to have been crashed deliberately – probably by the co-pilot of flight 4U9525. Based on audio taken from the voice recorder, the French authorities have come to the conclusion that after the aircraft had reached cruising altitude, the captain left the cockpit for a short time and was then unable to re-enter.”
Germanwings statement
As the news of Lubitz’s actions spread, airlines around the world started rolling out new safety policies that require two crew members to be in the cockpit at all times.
Effective immediately, EasyJet and Fly Norwegian have introduced the ‘rule of two’, which requires another qualified crew member to lock the door and remain on the flight deck until the pilot returns to his or her station.
@AlexSmithNBC@Fly_Norwegian fair enough but if a pilot wants to take the plane into a dive I doubt one cabin crew would be able to stop him
— cathy king (@aggiepuss44) March 26, 2015
Air Transat has also introduced the new safety rule along with Air Canada, which said the rule will be rolled out .without delay’.
Lufthansa confirmed it too will adopt the ‘rule of two’ as well Air Berlin, Monarch Airlines, Virgin and Thomas Cook.
Despite the tragic event, travellers have taken to social media to show their support for the industry and Germanwings. Read on