14 thoughts on “Aircraft Cockpits”

  1. a cockpit door only needs to hold up for say 5 minutes of determined attack.
    Once the pilots and passengers figure out it’s an attack, they will deal with it appropriately.

    It’s a pity the Bush Administration went crazy on these rules.

    it’s even more pitiable Obama didn’t reverse these rules.

    1. a cockpit door only needs to hold up for say 5 minutes of determined attack.

      Really? Ever tried carrying out a determined attack at 35,000 feet air pressure? Do you think those masks over the seats are portable?

      1. while a hijack attack at 35,000 is likely easily defeated if the pilots explosively depress the passenger
        compartment, it’s also likely to injure a number of passengers, a slower cabin depress is
        less likely to injure the innocent.

        Also, a hijack attack at say 5,000 feet while in climb out, doesn’t let the pilots, depress the cabin.

        however, given a couple of minutes the passengers are likely to riot.

  2. It’s worth remembering that one of the 9/11 aircraft didn’t get to kill people on the ground because the door wasn’t secure, the brave passengers could fight back.

    But you can’t design the system for all possible eventualities, there is no perfect solution.

  3. It’s worth mentioning that at least two crashes (one EgyptAir, the other an Indonesian airline) have been caused by suicidal first officers who waited until the captain went to the toilet, and locked the cockpit door. They then shoved the nose down.

    Also, the Ethiopian airliner that was hijacked by the first officer to Geneva a few weeks ago likewise locked the captain out.

    And with flight 93 on 9-11, I’ll bet the hijackers were wishing for a more secure door.

    As for a solution… I’ll try to use the same logic as the ones who came up with current policy.
    Obviously, captains using the toilet has played a major role in at least three cases above, two with major loss of life. So, clearly, toilet facilities should be removed from all aircraft. Also, two incidents with large fatalities involved a crew member being alone on the flight deck, so when one pilot leaves, they must both leave, and lock the door behind them. Further, the door should be operable from the inside only .

    1. The Silk Air crash you refer to was a result of the Captain, not the first officer, driving the plane into the ground.

      so when one pilot leaves, they must both leave, and lock the door behind them. Further, the door should be operable from the inside only .

      There’s a film comedy/thriller in there.

  4. Hey Rand, did you notice the pilots went through the same security screening everyone else did? And they still say it is effective! They didn’t use the back scanner devices, so I guess there’s that…

  5. They could solve 99% of these issues by simply making the cockpit door out of bacon strips, but SQUIRREL!

  6. I’m starting to have doubts about the current search area for MH370, the “pallet” wasn’t photographed, and the only thing a follow up search for it found was a lump of brown seaweed, that looked to be about the size of a pallet.

    I can’t understand how objects the size of a 777 wing can’t be quickly found if seen by satellites only a couple of days before ASW aircraft go looking for them, sure, they may have drifted up to 100km from their previous location, but a 2o meter plus wing, or section of fuselage is going to have a pretty strong radar reflection, how the heck can 3 P3 Orions and a P8 Poseidon not be able to find them in two days of searching??

    I’m thinking that another thing that’s big and white and hard to find on radar is a yacht sail, one that’s been lost or discarded.

    1. If the plane hit the water at a significant speed in other than a controlled ditching attempt, there likely wouldn’t be many large pieces of wing left to float. The primary fuel tanks are in the wings and carry kerosene, which is lighter than water. However, if the tanks are ruptured, the fuel will leak out and the wing pieces will sink. The fuselage will only float if intact and even then not for long. The primary pieces that would float are things like passenger bodies (for a time), seat cushions and other lightweight objects. Perhaps some of the lighter composite parts might float but I don’t know for sure. Since the plane disappeared over two weeks ago, any possible debris could’ve drifted for hundreds of miles by now. Even if they find debris and confirm it was from the plane, there’s still a very large area to search to try and find the flight data and cockpit voice recorders. Experts like those at Woods Hole Oceanographic will be needed to narrow down the search area like they did for that Air France crash a few years ago, but the problem will be much harder this time. In the Air France crash, the searchers found debris quickly and that helped narrow the search area considerably. Even then, it took a long time to find the “black boxes” (which are orange).

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