A320 German-wings accident in Southern France

[fairbasa]

I don't know...sometimes the obvious is actually the issue.

JB - curious to hear your insights regarding the initiation of the descent and the door locking system.

Specifically:
- Suppose the co-pilot was incapacitated, do you believe it feasible for the autopilot to suffer a conflict as suggested which results in it descending into the ground? I was always under the impression there were flight laws/protective measures in Airbus Aircraft specifically to prevent such things?
- I know you can't give too much away regarding the door locks, but do you believe it would be possible for the locking system to be switched into the 'LOCK' position and not detected on the CVR or FDR?

 

[fairbasa]

Regarding Q2, I went ahead and read the BEA report which answered that question:

"The in-flight testing CVR recordings of coughpit door toggle switch activations showedthat this action could be audible on the CVR CAM track in certain conditions, butthere was no recurrent acoustic signature as the noise produced depended on theway the pilot released the switch to neutral position. Spectral analysis of the eventflight CVR CAM track did not make it possible to positively identify coughpit doortoggle switch activations."

 

[CaptJCool]

Is the father in denial? Or is their other issues why the father doesn't want the decision to be suicide?

Usually life insurance claims are void on suicide

 

[whatmeworry]

Usually life insurance claims are void on suicide

That was one of the possibilities I thought of. The other being family reputation.

 

[jb747]

Specifically:
- Suppose the co-pilot was incapacitated, do you believe it feasible for the autopilot to suffer a conflict as suggested which results in it descending into the ground? I was always under the impression there were flight laws/protective measures in Airbus Aircraft specifically to prevent such things?

Autopilot mode changes are fairly graceful, and a done in such a way that the current flight path is maintained. Even AP off, the aircraft would not be inclined towards leaving its cruising altitude.

Selecting a target altitude of 100', and then activating 'open descent', requires a couple of deliberate steps.... The fact that he had played with the target setting on a previous flight is telling too.

The protections are mostly to do with stalling the aircraft. For lots of reasons, they aren't 'geographically' protected, though I'm sure someone is looking at that. In any event, protections disappear with law degradation, so even it they did exist, you'd be able to defeat them if you wanted to.

I know you can't give too much away regarding the door locks, but do you believe it would be possible for the locking system to be switched into the 'LOCK' position and not detected on the CVR or FDR?

Whilst door locking systems are similar, they do differ. The FO had to take some specific steps to keep the Captain locked out.

 

[fairbasa]

From reading the BEA report more, they built up a catalog of coughpit sounds (much more than they had ever previously collected) to compare noises in the CVR with and were able to identify the sound of a seat and tray table being moved in the minutes after the captain left the coughpit. Not definitively excluding the possibility he was partially incapacitated, but making that theory less and less credible.

 

[jb747]

From reading the BEA report more, they built up a catalog of coughpit sounds (much more than they had ever previously collected) to compare noises in the CVR with and were able to identify the sound of a seat and tray table being moved in the minutes after the captain left the coughpit. Not definitively excluding the possibility he was partially incapacitated, but making that theory less and less credible.

Which perhaps means that he got up and deadlocked the door.