Airbus A320 family

Tag Archives for Airbus A320 family.

Post Germanwings: 2 in cockpit

a broken airplane in the dirt

On many of my flights, I have watched the pilot come out of the cockpit to use the lavatory. On some airlines, as he or she has emerged, a member of the cabin crew has replaced him. On others, the pilot or co pilot has left their colleague alone in charge of the plane. The U.S.A had rules before last Tuesday’s Germanwings crash requiring airlines to have two crew members present at all times during the flight. Many other countries allowed airlines to set their own policies. And this has always bothered me. I have always…

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Modern Cockpit doors & Germanwings

a finger pressing a switch on a device

After 11 September, 2001, airlines and authorities needed to ensure that no unauthorised persons could get into the cockpit. This resulted in the creation the cockpit doors we have on aircraft today. No more did we see the cockpit door left open on flights or people wandering in and out or passengers visiting. The doors themselves are virtually impenetrable. These may not have been topical until this week when the copilot of Germanwings 9525, Andreas Lubitz reportedly locked Captain Patrick Sondenheime out of the cockpit before deliberately flying the Airbus 320 into a French mountain. This video (which…

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Germanwings 9525 Crashes in France

a white airplane taking off

An Airbus A320 registration D-AIPX, operated by Germanwings, has crashed near Digne les Bains in the mountainous French Alpes-des-Hautes province on Tuesday morning 24th March, 2015, shortly after 10:47am local time. Flight 9525 was carrying a total of 144 passengers, two pilots and four cabin crew. A distress signal was issued by the pilot flying at 6800ft. “We do not yet know what has happened to flight 4U 9525. My deepest sympathy goes to the families and friends of our passengers and crew on 4U 9525. If our fears are confirmed, this is a dark…

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JetBlue WestJet Expand Space for Pay

JetBlue has made a lot of fuss about the extra legroom in their cabins. It is one reason I love them. I also have been very happy to pay the premium to get the extra row emergency exit seats. They call this Product “Even More(TM) Space”.  On JetBlue’s Airbus A320 aircraft, Even More Space seats with 38-inches of legroom are offered in rows 2-5 plus emergency exit rows 10 and 11. I like it because not only do you get more room (38″ instead of 33″), you also get Priority Boarding which means your luggage is first…

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