Friday, March 27, 2015

"Germanwings captain tried to break into locked cockpit door 'with an axe'..."

"...as plane was descending"
The captain of the doomed Germanwings plane reportedly used an axe to break down the cockpit door in the final moments before his co-pilot “intentionally” descended the plane, killing everyone on board.

French investigators said the captain can be heard asking “several times” for access after identifying himself, but received no response. He then banged on the door before trying to forcefully gain entry, with one investigator telling The New York Times: “You can hear he is trying to smash the door down.”
Internet rumor is that the co-pilot was a Muslim convert... (via Gateway Pundit)

Authorities are not yet calling it a terrorist attack.

17 comments:

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

Rock-Paper-Scissors-Cockpit Door-Axe.

john said...

If that were true the passengers would have witnessed it. Wouldn't one expect that a lot of cell phones would have been fired up in the last few minutes of the flight, with panic calls made to friends, family?

Aridog said...

To save keyboard time, here is what I said on another blog:

First, I’d like to see all cockpits expanded to accommodate a 3rd flight officer and, on the opposite side a water closet for crew use only in the cockpit. Probably not likely due to the economics of decreased seating…but if done, with a rule that no less than two officers are in the cockpit at one time, they could institute the two-man agreement system for the fancy automation Airbus uses. Similar to how launch commands are set up in missile facilities. Today’s technology should not allow a descent setting to 96 feet when over mountains, when the relative height distances can easily be observed….e.g., no setting for less than 1000 feet over any mountain in the flight path should be available.

Next, I’d prefer all three officers remain in the cockpit, but realize there are times when one must leave for the passenger section…so there’d still be two in the cockpit in control of the two man/woman set up for radical changes to the automated system(s).


In addition to that I'm going to avoid any Airbus aircraft for a while...due to their particular type of automated auto pilot that ignores relative altitude and can block pilot input at times. No automated system should permit settings of 96 feet when the relative altitude over mountains (easily determined by the most rudimentary systems) is absurd for 96 feet...e.g., if over 14K foot high mountains it should be impossible to set for 96 feet.

I am v-e-r-y glad I no longer have to fly weekly, especially coast to coast over the Rockies.

ricpic said...

Descended the plane? What awful phrasing. How about dove the plane? Drove the plane down? Took the plane down? Well, not much better. Suggestions?

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

Pilots should always have access BOTH WAYS in and out of the cockpit.

They over-secured it and never thought for a moment that angry revenge virgin seeking allah akbar might be a trained pilot and a new convert.

bagoh20 said...

Unfortunately, government regulations required that the axe be made of styrofoam to meet a safety goal of zero lifting injuries among employees.

Chip Ahoy said...

Live and learn innit.

In the good old days when flying was a pleasure they would actually allow little children to visit the captain and see the cockpit with all its marvelous gauges and dials and technical instruments. But then, you never knew who on the plane might have a gun and pretty much the worst thing that could happen was an unscheduled to stop to Havana. Then things happened, deregulation, cost of flying plummeted and now everybody flies at the drop of a hat.

Grandma sneezed. Fly to Ohio
Cindy's QuinceaƱera. Flies to New Mexico
Doug's bar mitzvah. Flies to New Jersey
Little Andy's second birthday. Flies to Salem
Rock concert. Flies to Vancouver
Grandma sneezes again. Flies to Ohio again
Solar Eclipse. Flies to Faros
Signs up for Cruise. Flies to Miami to take cruise
Wants to ski. Flies from Mexico City to SLC
Needs a photo of a fish having a hook pulled from its mouth. Flies film crew to Washington state
Wants to hunt deer with brother. Flies to Texas

And such. And then things happened and then Bush made airline security a matter federal responsibility and everyone agreed it must be so and now the cockpit is barricaded so even the pilot cannot get back in.

deregulation: considered a good thing: Reagan

Homeland security, TSA: considered a good thing: Bush

Conclusion: Republicans are bad for fling. Considered good things, considered necessary, I hate them.

It's a learn as you go deal, much as my spring garden.

The new thing I learned.

You must buy potting mix for the type thing that I am doing. Not dirt. Not potting soil. Potting mix.. So potting mix it is. Everything is changed out.

That was my sole concern, I ended up with a type intended for organic gardening.

It's all new potting mix. It's all brand new seeds. So where did the white flies come from. Where did aphids come from?

It must have been the organic potting mix. Next time, avoid organic potting mix. And I do need another 2 sq. ft. bag. Get something that does not brag about being organic. Also I can buy it from Home Depot for half the cost of buying online. Buying dirt online is exceedingly odd anyway with so much of it so near. There is no good way to justify that, I thought there was, in a 'just bring it to me' frame of mind, but there isn't a good justification.

Amartel said...

If it's not Boeing, I'm not going. Does not, strictly, apply to this particular incident but still, words to live by if you can. I took the A380 back from Frankfurt once. It's a monster!

Leland said...

The Muslim/Terrorist angle doesn't add up to me. First, no prayer was heard on the cockpit voice recorder. So if he converted, he wasn't very devout. Second, if he was locked inside and at the controls; why would a murderer wanting to be terrorist just crash into a mountain. He had time to pilot the plane into something other than a mountain to cause more deaths.

I think this was just a depressed man given a way out. He might not even considered anyone but himself and that asshole pilot banging at the door.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

One minute he was a gentle pilot and a lumberjack the next.

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

Those passengers would be alive today if the pilot had one of those giant, rain-soaked bags of Miracle-Gro potting mix to use as a battering ram.

Titus said...

My intern (Harvard BS 2015) was in my office today and I dropped my pen.

I picked it up and my nose was by her cooch and I could smell it. I wasn't sure if it was a Vart or if her twat just smelled.

tits.

Amartel said...

Deep thoughts from Hannibal Lecter's next door neighbor.

edutcher said...

Axe?

I thought that sort of thing was contraband, unless it's in the super-secret axe compartment.

john said...

If that were true the passengers would have witnessed it. Wouldn't one expect that a lot of cell phones would have been fired up in the last few minutes of the flight, with panic calls made to friends, family?

Excellent point, since that's what happened on 9/11.

Aridog said...

I'm going to avoid any Airbus aircraft for a while...

Wasn't the Malaysia Air flight an Airbus?

ricpic said...

Descended the plane? What awful phrasing.

The word is crashed.

Murdered will also do.

Amartel said...

If it's not Boeing, I'm not going

Words to live by.

Perhaps literally.

Titus said...

My intern (Harvard BS 2015) was in my office today and I dropped my pen.

I picked it up and my nose was by her cooch and I could smell it. I wasn't sure if it was a Vart or if her twat just smelled.


Maybe you turn her on.

Once you go pussy, you never go wussy.

Orrey G.Rantor said...

"The Muslim/Terrorist angle doesn't add up to me."

I agree but the German and French governments have many reasons to ignore that angle officially right now given the hebdo attack in France and Pegida protests against muslims in Germany. Its fuel for the fire against the current leaderships interests.

I favor the depressed angle with possible bad breakup with a girl (or guy) given the medical stuff thats now flying around rumor town.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

I initially, once I heard his name, that a bad breakup might have set off the guy.

If that indeed is the case, would anyone come forward and say 'I broke up with a mass murderer'?

I don't know.

Meade said...

@Chip, the stuff you want is called PRO-MIX® BX

Buy it here: http://www.pthorticulture.com/en/distributors/?type=pro