If you admit to snoring, prepare to spend thousands on tests to prove you dont have sleep apnea. On November 5th, just two months after he started his initial training, he withdrew, citing medical reasons. it's too late. The level of delusion required to completely dismiss the lives of 149 other people in the blind pursuit of self-annihilation is difficult to comprehend and impossible to study. He loved his job, he spent time with friends, he had hobbies, he had a girlfriend. These times are applied to the transcript, providing a local time for every event on the transcript. The older analog units use one-quarter inch magnetic tape as a storage medium and the newer ones use digital technology and memory chips. KLM 3Willem Schreuder, KLM Flight Engineer But for those who deal with medical certification in their day-to-day lives that is to say, pilots this proposal is alarming not just because of the principle of reduced privacy, but because from the inside, its potentially damaging safety effects are self-evident. we are still taxiing down the runway, the Clipper 1736. In an effort to get his life back on track, he began taking anti-depressants, and after some time he started to show improvement but his own mental health was only half the battle. Get access to AeroInside Insights with the Pro plan, a new enhanced search and filter tool, full read access to every article published and But the doctors at Lufthansas aeromedical center denied his application on account of his ongoing major depression and medication thereof, which rendered him unfit to fly under European and German law. determined that the Pan Am flight crew saw the KLM coming at them out of the We gonna go straight out there till we get 3,500 feet, then But Im about to propose a radical hypothesis: that his heinous crime might have been avoided if the aeromedical process had treated him like a normal person. Videos linked to airline accidents and incidents. were instructed to contact you and also to taxi down the runway, is that correct? he, maybe he counts these (are) three. Those unfamiliar with the process might not understand why, so its worth taking some time to explain, not only because privacy is important, but because the reasons for the policys ineffectiveness are closely tied to some of the possible untold circumstances behind the actions of Andreas Lubitz. On the flight into Barcelona from Dsseldorf on the morning of the crash, it almost came. The CVR transcript will be released when the public We will never know, and in the end, it probably doesnt matter. Many pilots reading this are probably already aware that Lubitzs failure to disclose would not necessarily have seemed important, because the dark truth about the aeromedical process is that everyone lies. Shortly after the crash of flight 9525, the European Aviation Safety Agency began encouraging the policy in Europe in order to gather data about its effectiveness, but after the trial period was over, the results were not encouraging. Fearing the worst, the Air Force scrambled a fighter to intercept the plane but it was already too late. They can provide information that may be difficult or impossible to obtain by other means. from the Pan Am cockpit voice recorder. [Sound The articles cover air safety incidents for Lord, Aska replied. Minutes later, at 10:48, the scrambled fighter jet took off and hurried to the area where flight 9525 was last seen, already fearing that the plane had crashed in the mountains. A mechanical click is heard and then Aska said, Whoa., (Wheres) my speed, my speed?Aska asked. Seconds later, he reduced it back to 288 knots, then moved it up again to 302 knots. A CVR committee usually consisting of members from the NTSB, FAA, operator of the aircraft, manufacturer of the airplane, manufacturer of the engines, and the pilots union, is formed to listen to the recording. From that point, the investigation into the crash, conducted in parallel by safety experts and judicial authorities, began to focus on what led Andreas Lubitz to commit such an appalling act, and how he was able to get away with it. Because of this sensitivity, a high degree of security is provided for the CVR audio and its transcript. At 10:38, with the plane flying dangerously low, French Air Defense tried to contact it on the universal emergency frequency, but it didnt respond there, either. In many countries, this includes two of the most common psychological conditions: anxiety and depression. If you need help with the Public File, call 210-351-1241. With the KLM aircraft now taxiing down Runway 12, Air Traffic Control turns its You could be made to attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings despite not drinking alcohol. than 70 officials from Spain, the Netherlands, and the United States. Copyright 2023 KSAT.com is managed by Graham Digital and published by Graham Media Group, a division of Graham Holdings. The FO was the pilot flying, the captain was the pilot monitoring, and the autopilot and autothrottle were engaged and remained engaged for the remainder of the flight. I In the depths of despair, he experienced suicidal ideation, made a pact with his therapist not to commit suicide, and was briefly hospitalized. One of the most disturbing aspects of Lubitzs story is that most of those who knew him thought he was a normal person. You can be forced to spend thousands to prove you arent suicidal because you take medication for general anxiety. KLM RTKLM aircraft radio transmission But still, we cant help but ask. third one, sir, one, two, three, third, third one. After all, his flight training had cost him 60,000 euros and he was still repaying the loan. In a stroke of luck, a rescuer stumbled across the cockpit voice recorder, or CVR, within hours of the crash, and it was immediately rushed to the BEA headquarters in Paris. put a bomb (in) the terminal, sir, right where the check-in counters are. So what does this all have to do with Germanwings flight 9525, you might ask? Soon, the CVR captured the sound of heavy blows against the door as Sondenheimer frantically tried to smash his way in, but time was running out. 747s are both in queue to taxi down the runway and turn around for takeoff. Stall! How Lubitz, in the grip of psychosis, drifted to the opposite extreme cannot be known, although psychologists have proposed various explanations. much more. 4805 taxi to the holding position Runway 30. The CVR records the flight crew's voices, as well as other sounds inside the cockpit. The other side of the argument is that Lubitz should never have been allowed to fly at all, in which case hope wouldnt have mattered. Roger, KLM This committee creates a written transcript of the CVR audio to be used during the investigation. and confirm that you've read our As if that would somehow be better! The items monitored can be anything from flap position to auto-pilot mode or even smoke alarms. Germanwings offered insurance that would cover most of the loan if he became unfit to fly, but what about after that? Open the goddamn door! he roared, as mountains streaked by outside the windows, the cacophony in the cabin juxtaposed against Lubitzs malevolent silence. you want us to turn left at Charlie 1, taxiway Charlie 1? Due to the limitation on his certificate, the aeromedical examiners were required to contact the licensing authority, which in this case was the LBA, the German equivalent of the FAA, in order to learn about his medical history. If he didnt want the plane to crash, he would have tried to stop it, but he didnt even try, successfully or otherwise. I read that on negative, taxi straight aheadahup to the end of the runway and For French investigators with the Bureau of Inquiry and Analysis, or BEA, dispatched to handle the case under international law, the only answers would come from the planes two black boxes. Some would suggest that the story of Andreas Lubitz clearly justifies this position. He had spent years of his life working to become a pilot, and flying had been his passion since childhood. Aeromedical certification exists because there are numerous medical conditions whose characteristics or treatments carry unacceptable risk of sudden incapacitation. (NTSB photo) This photo, taken on March 2, 2019, shows the cockpit voice recorder of the Feb. 23 cargo jet that crashed in Trinity Bay in Anahuac, TX being submerged in Three people died when Atlas Air Flight 3591, a Boeing 767-300 cargo jet, crashed on Feb. 23 in the muddy marshland of Trinity Bay in Chambers County. [KLM] Had Lubitz made the decision already and was testing his methods, or was he testing the concept itself, unsure whether he wanted to go all the way? The NTSB released over 2,000 pages of documents from its investigation into the February 23 crash of Atlas Air Flight 3591, bound from Miami to Houston, which But for conditions that are temporary, or are easily treatable with approved forms of medication, looser rules will encourage honesty, especially among pilots who develop these conditions after their careers have already begun. though Air Traffic Control has not issued the proper clearance. To this day, no definitive transcript of the CVRs contents has been published, but a basic outline can be gleaned from official reports and the accounts of journalists who heard the tapes. In early March, he started searching the internet for ways to commit suicide. At the time, the accident flight was about 40 miles from IAH and descending through about 6,300 ft msl toward the target altitude of 3,000 ft msl. off the runway again for the beginning of Runway 30. The crash upended the lives of hundreds, shocked Lufthansa employees, and forever scarred the town of Haltern am See, which lost 16 teenagers in a single blow. To understand why, we should go back to the beginning of Lubitzs training, when he first suffered from depression. the runway andahmakeahbacktrack. The flight departed Miami at 16:33UTC (11:33 ET). Flight data recorder data indicated that, during the time, aircraft load factors consistent with the airplane encountering light turbulence were recorded and, at 1238:31, the airplanes go-around mode was activated. But there was no reply. ["third" drawn out and emphasized]. An Embraer ERJ-190LR (ERJ-190-100 LR) plane, registered P4-KCJ, sustained substantial damage in an accident at NE of Lisbon, Portugal. Also contributing were systemic deficiencies in the aviation industrys selection and performance measurement practices, which failed to address the first officers aptitude-related deficiencies and maladaptive stress response. In addition, some FDRs can record the status of more than 1,000 other in-flight characteristics that can aid in the investigation. Okay, Get access to AeroInside Insights, unlimited read access and receive the daily newsletter. More precise timing for critical events can be obtained using sound spectrum software. The CVR captured the sound of his seat sliding back, the sound of the cockpit door opening, and finally a click as it swung closed again, locking automatically. HOUSTON A transcript of audio that was recorded aboard a cargo plane that crashed into Trinity Bay earlier this year revealed the crews panicked moments just before the fatal descent. Allegedly, he failed to disclose his history of depression on the form, but was somehow caught in the lie; the official report, however, makes no mention of any explicit rulebreaking. The airplane operated on a flight from Alverca Air Base (AVR) to Minsk-2 International Airport (MSQ). Based on this evidence, just two days after the accident the BEA announced to the world that the crash of flight 9525 was a purposeful act by the First Officer. The firstborn son of a banker and a piano teacher, Andreas Gnter Lubitz was born on December 18th, 1987 in the Bavarian town of Neuberg an der Donau, although his family moved across the country to Montabaur while he was still in school. On the 23rd of February 2019, a Boeing 767 transporting cargo for Amazon suddenly dived into Trinity Bay while on approach to Houston, Texas, killing all three people on board. From the putrid estuary, investigators pulled the jets two black boxes, which together revealed the perplexing story of the last moments of Atlas Air flight 3591. But this time, that didnt happen. After reaching 38,000 feet, the autopilot leveled the plane, and Sondenheimer proposed that Lubitz prepare for the descent briefing, seeing as their cruise phase would be short. The FO freaked and recovered from a stall that didnt exist. Okay, Here's An Atlas Air Boeing 747-400 freighter on behalf of Fedex Federal Express, registration N477MC performing flight FX-251 from Memphis,TN (USA) to San, An Atlas Air Boeing 747-400 on behalf of US Transportation Command, registration N480MC performing flight CMB-517 from Topeka,KS (USA) to Poznan. By the time either flight crew saw the other plane in the fog, it was too late to avert the disaster, which arose out of a series of miscommunications among both flight crews and the control tower. NetZero.aero But before long, pilots will learn that they can avoid this trap by declining to seek treatment at all. And Perhaps he was simply a murderous psychopath all along, desiring to live in infamy. privacy policy. Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR), records radio transmissions and sounds in the cockpit, such as the pilot's voices and engine noises. This would clear Well see.. WebThe transcript, containing all pertinent portions of the recording, can be released to the public at the time of the Safety Board's public hearing. In February, a physician issued him 8 days of sick leave, but he kept working anyway. The In total, 144 passengers boarded the plane, along with six crew, including four flight attendants and the two pilots, 34-year-old Captain Patrick Sondenheimer and 27-year-old First Officer Andreas Lubitz, who had just flown the plane in from Dsseldorf and were now entrusted to fly it back. Descending through 25,000 feet, he used the speed knob to enter a target airspeed of 350 knots, the highest value a pilot could select. In fact, they might have believed that Lubitz was complying with their requests that he take time off from work, but even if they knew he was flying, their options would have been limited. The door was too strong, but still he fought and still Lubitz sat there, his breath calm, ignoring the frantic screaming and banging, disregarding the ground proximity warning system as it blared, TERRAIN! I will call you. At 4:58 p.m. on March 27, 1977, when this transcript begins, the KLM and Pan Am www.project-tenerife.com/engels/PDF/Tenerife.pdf) and has been slightly Within minutes, they were forced to report the grim news that none of the 150 passengers and crew could possibly have survived. In the opinion of EASA and the airlines themselves, the policy did not eliminate the risk of pilot suicide: after all, several high-profile cases of in-flight suicide have occurred with more than one pilot in the cockpit, and the presence of a flight attendant is even less likely to prove decisive. What was Sondenheimer feeling in those horrible moments, listening to the screams of the passengers whose safety had been entrusted to him, knowing that he was fighting a losing battle to save 150 lives? The report issued Wednesday does not include a cause for the crash, which NTSB officials said is still under investigation. The pilot, identified in local news reports as Howard Cassady, 71, and his 28-year-old co-pilot Matthew Palmer, left evidence of their impatience on the cockpit voice recorder recovered from the charred wreckage and transcribed by NTSB investigators. RT speak simultaneously. The only conclusion is that the system we have now does not and cannot ensure that unfit pilots are kept out of the cockpit, at which point we have the right to ask what aeromedical certification is even for. Lord, you have my soul!. Increasing awareness is the only way to pressure governments to reform the system and make no mistake, the consequences of failing to fix the problem are potentially disastrous. WebAtlas 3591 CVR transcript released The FO freaked and recovered from a stall that didnt exist. On the job, he kept up a remarkable impression of normalcy, but on the inside, he was falling apart, growing more dangerous with every passing day. Speculation ran wild, with proposed scenarios including a computer malfunction or pilot incapacitation due to lack of oxygen. Atlas Air pilots Capt. However, Sword of Damocles clauses like the one applied to Lubitz should be used sparingly, if at all. Over the next minute, the controller tried several more times to call flight 9525, his transmissions clearly recorded on the CVR, but Lubitz did not reply. At 10:30, Marseille cleared the flight direct to the IRMAR waypoint, and Sondenheimer read back, Direct IRMAR, merci, Germanwings one eight Golf. But the Marseille controllers would never again hear from flight 9525. The investigation into the myriad causes of the disaster at Tenerife's airport Typically, this means that a flight attendant must wait in the cockpit whenever one pilot leaves to use the bathroom, a policy which has existed in the United States for many years, but was not and still is not widespread in the rest of the world. flight level 90 right turn after takeoff proceed with heading 040 until As flight 9525 continued its steady but rapid descent, the controller kept calling, to no avail, watching as the flights altitude indication dropped ever lower. I'll ask him again. Many of these conditions are no more common now than they were 40 years ago, but the rate of diagnosis has increased, especially for low-level cases that realistically pose no danger. On February 23, 2019, at 1239 central standard time, Atlas Air Inc. (Atlas) flight 3591, a Boeing 767-375BCF, N1217A, was destroyed after it rapidly descended from an altitude of about 6,000 ft mean sea level (msl) and crashed into a shallow, muddy marsh area of Trinity Bay, Texas, about 41 miles east-southeast of George Bush Intercontinental/Houston Airport (IAH), Houston, Texas. the KLM 4805 is now ready for takeoff and we're waiting for our ATC clearance. events of that afternoon and read an annotated transcript of the two planes' the Pan Am cockpit voice recorder. require backtrack on 12 for takeoff Runway 30. He had multiple failures and didnt disclose a few of them to Atlas. As a result of this investigation, the we mades six new safety recommendations and reiterated two safety recommendations to the Federal Aviation Administration. AeroInside has currently 34 articles available for reading involving an aircraft from Atlas Air . But the problem is compounded Sean Archuleta, who was riding in the jump seat, died in the Many were left with feelings of helpless anger. But then youre back to the original problem. don't think they have takeoff minimums anywhere right now. Days later, his psychiatrist prescribed him two more medications, Escitalopram and Zolpidem, neither of which was approved for pilots, but still, he kept flying. reportahreadyahfor ATC clearance. We After applying again, the Lufthansa aeromedical center decided to issue him a new medical certificate, but with strings attached: if he ever again suffered from depression, the document said, the certificate would immediately become invalid. The captain, first officer (FO), and a nonrevenue pilot riding in the jumpseat died. We owe this because the Germanwings tragedy was not only a senseless act of murder, but the product of a senseless system, one which must be reformed before the next Andreas Lubitz, succumbing to the siren song of oblivion, steps into a cockpit for the last time. indicate 10, leading edge lights are green. Approaching the 9,500-foot (2,900-meter) peak, the plane made no effort to turn away, until at last it disappeared up a remote valley, never to emerge. and his copilot NTSB Media Relations First Officer Lubitz allegedly told him that he could go any time, but Sondenheimer prudently decided to wait until the plane was established in cruise. An airplane is seen in this image moments before it crashed into Trinity Bay near Anahuac, Texas, on Feb. 23, 2019. On February 23, 2019, at 1239 central standard time, Atlas Air Inc. (Atlas) flight 3591, a Boeing 767-375BCF, N1217A, was destroyed after it rapidly descended And we owe it to future pilots, who should have the right to care for themselves without fear of punishment, as well as their future passengers, who would rest easier knowing that something has been done. The result of this system is a culture of deceit, as instructors and fellow pilots always off the record, of course advise up-and-coming young aviators to lie to the FAA when applying for their medical. But at first, the reasons for this devastation were unclear. Discover how AeroInside supports your aviation research. Put the plane into a nose dive. The transcript, containing all pertinent portions of the recording, can be released to the public at the time of the Safety Board's public hearing. A lawsuit filed on behalf of the victims argued that Lubitzs flight school should never have accepted him because of his history of depression and his initial failure to disclose that history to the FAA. Their curiosity must have been indescribable: in that recording, they presumed, would be the outline of some bizarre scenario which led to the otherwise inexplicable crash. From there, anger and confusion turned to desperation. Taxi into the runway andahleave runway (third) to your left. Image Credits | With about 6,000 flying hours over a 10-year career, Sondenheimer was moderately experienced, while Lubitz was still fairly new he had been flying for Germanwings since 2014 and had so far accumulated just 630 hours in the air. 8705 [sic] and Clipper 1736, for your information, the centerline lighting is The Pan Am pilot guns the engines but Instead, he increased the selected airspeed again, to 323 knots. Ricky Blakely and First Officer Conrad Jules Aska, as well as Mesa Airlines Capt. At 1706:47.44, the KLM pilot screams, and the collision occurs. Expressing his companys horror and revulsion, Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr told the press, If a person takes 149 other people to their deaths with him, there is another word than suicide.. Put the plane into a nose dive. Everything seemed to be on track, until the summer of 2008, when Lubitz suddenly fell into a deep, crushing depression. The cockpit voice recorder is one of the most important, but haunting, remains from a plane crash. So instead of summing up the past, Ive decided to look to the future by sounding the alarm about a major issue which almost every pilot understands, but is virtually unknown to the general public. landed here KLM above). It transmits an acoustical signal on 37.5 KHz that can be detected with a special receiver. In the background, only minor unidentifiable sounds could be heard Lubitz remained silent, except for the sound of steady, unhurried breathing, picked up by the microphone on his headset. Uh, KLM meant "we're now at takeoff position." we have lost two engines, the pilot said, according to an English transcript. It all unfolded in the last ten minutes: in a shocking turn of events, the First Officer locked the Captain out of the cockpit, instructed the autopilot to descend to 100 feet, and then watched his plane fly into the ground as the Captain beat on the door with a crowbar and passengers screamed in terror. Its not clear from the official report whether the document described this invalidation as permanent, but that was certainly the implication. Some pilots who face difficulties with the process have genuinely problematic conditions, but many more are completely healthy, but nevertheless have to spend thousands of dollars and years of their lives in order to prove it. This is the first backup method any pilot would use if they are unable to access the cockpit so the fact that Sondenheimer never entered the emergency code could only mean that they keypad had been disabled by a conscious input from Lubitz. disaster, the log of conversations between the two planes and the tower in the We cant know for sure, because this is a hypothetical, and its always possible he was more delusional than is publicly known. For instance, we can probably all agree that you shouldnt be a commercial pilot if you have recurring suicidal thoughts, or if you have diabetes with high risk of hypoglycemia, or if you have no arms. (Houston Chronicle) Upon receiving calls from witnesses who saw the plane Perhaps, the official investigation noted, the controller thought that Affirmative, The following messages are audible in the KLM cockpit, causing the KLM This time, the symptoms were different, and more sinister. 54-page report about the cockpit voice recorder, preliminary review of the planes black box. Get off! Sometime in mid-March, he began searching the internet for information about cockpit door security on the Airbus A320. Several clicks are heard before an acknowledgement from the planes crew. Many of my articles end with a reassuring roundup of safety reforms or planned improvements, but unfortunately, this is not one of them. They For two years after that, he worked as a flight attendant for Lufthansa, until a spot opened up and he was assigned to the Germanwings division. From an aviation safety perspective, Lubitzs exact thought process matters a great deal less than the question of whether he could have been stopped. He may have had other issues which he was hiding the fact that he was capable of mass murder means he almost certainly did but from a systemic point of view, the problems on his official record are the ones that matter. At that time, EU rules prohibited anyone taking any psychoactive anti-depressant from holding a medical certificate, so the only solution was to ease off the medication. He subsequently completed an Airbus A320 type rating course, passed his proficiency check, and began flying passengers as an A320 First Officer for Germanwings in the fall of 2014.