BA Cockpit Safety regulations
 

Like everyone else I have been following the news of the terrible Germanwings tragedy. It was reported that the USA have a regulation which makes it compulsory to have two people in the cockpit at ALL times. My question is this - does anyone know if BA follow this rule - and which if any other European airlines have adopted it?

Doesn't stop one of the crew overpowering the other in the sealed cockpit. This is awful, what kind of world are we living in....

No of course it doesn't but a human who is genuine fear of their lives can take a large amount of overcoming.

I feel sick and frightened at the moment. I have a flight this evening and I'm hoping we have an announcement from the pilot in a reassuring voice before take-off, simply to reassure us that they are on the ball.

What exactly do you want them to say to reassure you, neither of them will leave the cockpit during the flight? What exactly do you want them to be on the ball of?

The amount of times you hear of a pilot coming back to the cockpit and finding his colleague asleep is scary, but it almost never ends up in catastrophe as planes pretty much fly themselves.

I'm not sure that insisting on having two people in the cockpit at once would help. Indeed, looking at this it appears that the crash might be an unintended consequence of insisting that cockpit doors remain locked - i.e. this might not have happened if it weren't for the 9-11 inspired safety regulations.

Mods please delete.

We do have procedures in place but this is not the place to discuss them.

You do know that if one of the pilot leaves to go e.g. to the toilet that the other person is a member of cabin crew?


How do you expect them to know what the remaining pilot is doing is something untoward or to be able to stop them?

Absolutely right that we should not go into specifics (and incidentally though it's great the authorities have put so much so quickly into the public domain, it is still easy to speculate on limited facts). However are you, in very broad general terms, able to suggest that this sequence of events is unlikely to happen on BA?

The most important bit that I'd want to see as a passenger is that an airline has a good, open approach to mental health so that if a member of crew (either cabin or cockpit) feels they're struggling with anything, that they can seek assistance without prejudice and report in as unfit to fly without feeling that they're putting their job or career at risk.

Everyone struggles to cope at some point for whatever reason, and it's vital that especially those responsible for the safety of hundreds of people on a day to day basis feel that they have support. I'd be interested to hear how BA (and other airlines, but this is a BA forum) look after the mental health of their crew. That would reassure me, certainly.

I'm not sure this is going to make you feel any better, but remember that statistically the journey to/from the airport by car is still most dangerous part of your trip. (Assuming that you are not planning to push in at the front during fast track boarding ;)).

They're actually quite logical and sensible, buried under an avalanche of tosh on www.pprune.com is some very interesting, and re-assuring info. None of which helps the bad guys tbh.

Our procedure appear to be very similar to Germanwings.

Good. And agreed.

One would hope each airline is currently rapidly reviewing its risk assessment(s) and responses for mitigation in this area.

It then becomes a balance for how much is believed necessary to go into the public domain to restore / strengthen confidence for the industry or the individual airline.

Somehow in parallel, and realistically becoming required practice in due course, would be any regulatory revisions (as deemed appropriate).

Desparately diffcult time for all those affected by 4U 9525. Sad got sadder.