Airbus A320: the access procedure to the cockpit, a real trap

A deliberate act, that's all investigators are certain about the crash of the A320 Germanwings. The unique black box for now recovered showed that the co-pilot at the controls of the camera, triggered only its descent until its fall in the mountains. Let's look to the concrete elements that made the commander, left the cockpit, was unable to regain access.

Breathing co-pilot, normal, was heard to crash, dismissing the theory of a malaise. He did, however, never responded to calls from his commander ordered him to open the door.

Since the attacks of 11 September 2001, the procedure for opening the door of an Airbus cabin is very rigorous and involves typing an emergency code on a housing outside the cockpit. If the code is properly returned, the door opens by itself after thirty seconds. But in the meantime, the person in the cockpit can, through a switch, decide to continue to block the door.

Therefore, two hypotheses: either the commander locked out, typed the password, but the co-pilot made the switch to "Lock", definitively blocking the door; is the commander, and this is a hypothesis suggested by the head of Lufthansa itself has entered a wrong code and in this case, impossible for him to return to the cockpit.

The black box reveals an alarm then sounded, signaling an altitude of close to zero device, that is when violent blows were struck against the door. In vain, the latter being screened in accordance with the rules of civil aviation.