Kamikaze Co-Pilot Accused of Mass Murder [View all]

[DonViejo]

Clive Irving

French officials say the co-pilot voluntarily crashed the Germanwings plane after locking out the pilot.

The co-pilot of Germanwings Flight 9525 took control of the airplane and headed straight into a mountain at more than 400 miles per hour as the passengers screamed in terror, a French prosecutor said today.

Evidence gathered from the cockpit voice recorder showed that one of the pilots had left the cockpit when the Airbus A320 reached cruise height, but was then unable to get back to the flight deck because he was locked out.

The pilot made repeated attempts to break through the door, the French official said: “We hear the pilot calling, asking to regain access to the cockpit, through the phone used to communicate between the cabin and the cockpit. There was zero response from the co-pilot.” The pilot failed to gain entry and the recording ends with the blaring of a proximity alarm, indicating that the impact with the Alps was imminent.

The prosecutor said that while the co-pilot was alone “he manipulated the flight management system to manage the descent.” The highly sophisticated computerized system of the A320 would not have detected any anomaly from these actions. Although the system uses a “flight protection envelope” to prevent pilots from what is called “over-corrrecting”—forcing the airplane into a maneuver that could destabilize it—the Germanwings A320 did not breach this safeguard in its descent. When the ground proximity warning is triggered the crew would be required to make an urgent change of course.

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http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/03/26/did-kamikaze-pilot-kill-150-people.html