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Modern Cockpit doors & Germanwings

by Martin J Cowling 1 Comment

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

by Martin J Cowling 3 Comments

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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2 Grandmas fly for first time

by Martin J Cowling Leave A Comment

This is an advertisement for a telephone company but I found it sweet, funny, poignant and touching. It is the story of two older women who fly for the first time. Ria Van den Brand, a 78-year-old grandma from the Netherlands prepared for flying by taking her first-ever roller coaster ride. That scene is priceless! Her late husband had a fear of heights so they never flew. An Bernaards, 71, also had a serious fear of flying. She says: “You wouldn’t get me in one of those for any amount of money. I will just take the…

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Spanair no more

by Martin J Cowling 11 Comments

The end came quickly for Spanair and her people.- very quickly.   History Established in 1986 as a charter airline by Scandinavian airlines with a Spanish travel company, Spanair began scheduled international flights in 1991 followed by Spanish domestic flights in 1994.  Membership of Star Alliance came in 2003. Skytrax rated them a 3 star airline.   Spanair struggled to make money and in June, 2007, SAS announced it would sell most of its 94 per cent shareholding.  SAS failed to find a buyer, however,  and finally sold 83.1 per cent for a euro to the government of the Catalonia region in Spain in January, 2009. This region gave the…

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