+34A veteran pilot reflects on how post-9/11 cockpit security failed when an attacker was already inside the flight deck of flydubai FZ1073, which plunged more than 18,000 feet in two minutes before a hero captain opened the door.
A veteran pilot says the apparent attack aboard flydubai flight FZ1073 shows that aviation security has a new and troubling weak link: the pilots themselves.
The aircraft, a Boeing 737 MAX, plummeted more than 18,000 feet in just two minutes, according to the account. That rate of descent far exceeds the design limits of any commercial aircraft the writer flew during a long command career. The vertical speed indicator of modern airliners reaches only 6,000 feet per minute. An 18,000-foot drop in two minutes would mean the instrument hit its stops, and the aircraft would have exceeded the speed of sound on its terrifying descent.
Survival Defies Boeing 737 Design Limits
Pieces of the rudder were missing when the plane was eventually landed by two other pilots who were miraculously onboard. The writer calls that landing no mean feat in itself. It is a testament to the structural strength of the 737, as with all modern airliners, that the jet survived those extreme aerodynamic loads and was still in a position to land safely. The 737 MAX has had a chequered history.
Its manufacturer Boeing came under heavy criticism and was fined heavily for design flaws that tragically resulted in loss of life, loss of airframe and loss of reputation. Even so, seeing that battered and bruised 737 on the ground with its tail in tatters was a nod to those who built it. The biggest nod, the writer says, must go to the hero pilot.
It appears that pilot not only fought off a colleague-attacker but also managed to open the cockpit door to allow more heroes onto the flight deck. In this astonishing case, the locked cockpit door was more a hindrance than a help. The severely injured captain, suffering stab wounds by all reports, somehow had the physical capacity and the presence of mind to open the door and let passengers save themselves from a pilot rather than the other way around.
Cockpit Security Lessons From September 11
It was an unbelievable turn of events. No one had to bash down a cockpit door because the apparent villain was already inside. Take yourself back to 9/11. The twin towers of the World Trade Centre were collapsing when the world's attention suddenly shifted to a hitherto harmless field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
United 93 had crashed there after a violent struggle in the cockpit between desperate passengers and a terrorist. Tragically, the terrorist prevailed and the world was never the same. Neither was aviation. We have all experienced the strict security routines that resulted from that despicable day.
Every time we fly, the legacy of September 11 lingers in some way, whether in the slower security queue or the drink bottle you have to forfeit. But most of all, it is the locked, bullet-proof cockpit door. Even if the captain wants a coffee, or to relieve himself or herself after one, flight attendants have to stand in what might be harm's way for that door to open momentarily.
Now, almost 25 years to the day, consider what appears to have happened in the cockpit of flydubai FZ1073. Security has become so water-tight that the weakest link now appears to be the pilots themselves. It is not the first time passengers have needed saving from a crew member.
Pilot Access Struggles From Germanwings Tragedy
The worst example was the Germanwings crash in 2015, when one pilot locked the other out of the flight deck and steered the plane into a mountain, killing all 150 people onboard. Back when the writer commanded the mighty 747 and then the A380, out of the hundreds of passengers aboard, it often crossed his mind that they could become a resource if any rogue activity endangered the flight.
Crews assess the physical prowess and brief passengers in exit rows on how to help in an evacuation. But when it comes to the cockpit, it is off limits. It is the only safe way. Unless the terrorist is already inside.
Reassessing Cockpit Door Access Protocols
It is a terribly twisted turn of events when the one-way street for flight deck access becomes a major threat to aircraft safety. It may well be time to reassess the actuation of the cockpit door to allow immediate entry from the cabin when things go as wrong as they appear to have gone on flight FZ1073.
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theage:I felt safer piloting planes after 9/11. But now terror can lock itself inside the cockpitThis story was compiled and edited by the HeadTopics newsroom and HT AI from the reports above.
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