Germanwings - Several stories

Germanwings Investigation to Focus on How Industry Vets Psychological Backgrounds of PilotsProsecutors say plane crash co-pilot Andreas Lubitz underwent psychotherapy

French police discuss operations at the site of the Germanwings crash, in Seyne-les-Alpes, French Alps, on Tuesday. 

PARIS-France's aviation accident investigation office is focusing its probe of Germanwings Flight 9525 on "systemic weaknesses" that may have led to the crash, including how the airline industry vets the psychological backgrounds of pilots.

The Bureau d'Enquêtes et d'Analyses said Tuesday its investigators were deepening their probe of the flight, operated by the budget unit of Deutsche Lufthansa AG. French prosecutors said they suspected the jetliner's co-pilot deliberately flew it into a mountain killing 149 people.

As one of the world's most prominent investigators of airline crashes, the BEA's findings are likely to be closely watched by aviation regulators in Europe and the U.S. The investigation, BEA said in a statement, will examine "the systemic weaknesses [that] might possibly have led to this aviation disaster or other similar events."

The probe over what went wrong aboard Flight 9525 leapt forward last week when French prosecutors said they suspected Andreas Lubitz, the 27-year-old co-pilot, deliberately locked his captain out of the cockpit and flew the airliner into an Alpine ridge at 400 miles an hour.

BEA's probe, the agency said, will look into the mechanisms and procedures used to lock cockpit doors as well as "the criteria and procedures applied to detect specific psychological profiles" of pilots.

German prosecutors on Monday said Mr. Lubitz underwent psychotherapy years ago because of suicidal tendencies-a situation experts say is hard for airlines to detect. While Mr. Lubitz had been under treatment, the prosecutors say, he hadn't exhibited suicidal or violent tendencies recently.

As French and German investigators comb Mr. Lubitz's life for clues of possible motives, industry experts have begun calling for tougher measures on how pilots are screened.

Current rules don't require-and in some countries prohibit-a private doctor from sharing information on a pilot's medical condition with airlines and regulators. Germany has very strict privacy laws that bar doctors from revealing medical information on their patients.

"That is probably something that is going to change," said Rob Bor, a specialist in clinical aviation psychology in London. Authorities may mandate information sharing.

While an assessment of mental fitness is part of annual checks, Mr. Bor said they may not be as thorough as possible. Doctors performing the pilot checks may need to sharpen their use of clinical interview methods to catch pilots trying to hide medical conditions, he said.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/germanwings-investigation-to-focus-on-how-industry-vets-psychological-backgrounds-of-pilots-1427797466

Germanwings loss pressures aviation war insurers


Last week's crash of the Germanwings plane in which all 150 aboard were killed will put further pressure on the already "beleaguered" aviation war sector, says A.M. Best Co. Inc. in a special report issued Monday.

Best said it believes the majority of the loss will be absorbed by the Lloyd's of London market, as well as a number of global insurers and reinsurers, according to the report, which was issued by the rating agency's London office.

Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty S.E. has been cited as the lead insurer of the all risks policy covering the aircraft, which was operated by Germanwings, a unit of Cologne, Germany-based Deutsche Lufthansa A.G., according to the report.

The report says passenger liability claims in connection with the crash, which reportedly was caused by its suicidal co-pilot, will be covered as part of aviation all risks policies and represent the majority of the overall loss.

The level of liability is uncertain but will depend upon the nationality, earning potential and family status of the passengers and crew, according to the report.

In terms of physical damage, the aircraft is valued at $6.5 million.

Best says if reports that the plane crash was caused by deliberate pilot action are correct, the insurers that underwrote the airlines hull war policy, rather than its all risks policy, are likely to be liable for the physical damage.

The report notes the crash followed a series of high-profile aviation losses in 2014, including the March 2014 disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH-370, hull claims caused by fighting at Tripoli Airport, and the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH-17 in Ukraine in July 2014.

The report says premium rates for the aviation war sector rose in 2014 in response to claim activity, although the level of increase was disappointing, given the magnitude of losses, and upward momentum stalled towards the end of the year.

The report says also the aviation market on the whole has performed well over the past 10 years, with results repeatedly bolstered by substantial reserve releases.

French eye cockpit entry, psychological screening rules France's air accident investigation agency says it is examining cockpit entry and psychological screening procedures following the crash of a Germanwings plane in the French Alps that killed all 150 people on board. Authorities say co-pilot Andreas Lubitz, who in the past had been treated for suicidal tendencies, locked the captain out of the cockpit before flying the Airbus 320 into a mountain during its March 24 flight from Barcelona to Duesseldorf. In its first statement since the co-pilot's responsibility was established, the French agency known as BEA said Tuesday its investigation was aiming to provide a "detailed analysis" of flight data. The BEA also said it would be studying "systemic weaknesses" that could have led to the crash - notably psychological screening procedures and cockpit-door procedures. http://www.newsday.com/news/world/french-eye-cockpit-entry-psychological-screening-rules-1.10163174 Back to Top

Lufthansa insurers set aside $300 million over Alps crash Gendarme Bruno Hermignies stands by a bulldozer clearing a path to the crash site near Seyne-les-Alpes, France, Monday, March 30, 2015. European investigators are focusing on the psychological state of a 27-year-old German co-pilot who prosecutors say deliberately flew a Germanwings plane carrying 150 people into a mountain, a French police official said Monday. (AP Photo/Claude Paris, Pool) BERLIN - Lufthansa says its insurers are setting aside $300 million to deal with possible costs resulting from last week's crash of a Germanwings jet in the French Alps, in which 150 people died. Lufthansa spokeswoman Kerstin Lau confirmed a report on the set-aside in the daily Handelsblatt on Tuesday. She said $300 million is the amount currently reserved to deal with "all costs arising in connection with the case." Last week, the company offered immediate aid of up to 50,000 euros ($54,250) per passenger to relatives of the victims. Those payments are separate from eventual compensation payments. Prosecutors believe, based on data from the cockpit voice recorder, that the Airbus A320's co-pilot locked his captain out of the cockpit and deliberately crashed Flight 9525 from Barcelona to Duesseldorf last Tuesday. http://www.bostonherald.com/news_opinion/international/europe/ Back to Top

French pilots suing over leaks in German jet crash probe In this undated photo provided by the French Interior Ministry, French emergency rescue services work at the site of the Germanwings jet that crashed on Tuesday, March 24, 2015 near Seyne-les-Alpes, France. The co-pilot of the Germanwings jet barricaded himself in the cockpit and intentionally rammed the plane full speed into the French Alps, ignoring the captain's frantic pounding on the door and the screams of terror from passengers, a prosecutor said Thursday. (AP Photo/French Interior Ministry, Francis Pellier) PARIS - France's leading pilots union said Friday it is filing a lawsuit over leaks about the investigation into the crash of a German jet into the French Alps. Pilots around Europe are angry that information about the final moments of the flight was reported in the media before prosecutors and others were informed. Pilots are concerned that the circumstances of Tuesday's crash will damage public trust. After leaks in the media about the crash, a prosecutor announced that cockpit recordings indicate the co-pilot of the Germanwings A320 jet intentionally flew the plane into a mountain. All 150 aboard were killed. Guillaume Schmid of France's SNPL union told The Associated Press on Friday that the lawsuit is over violating a French law on keeping information about investigations secret while they are ongoing. The lawsuit doesn't name an alleged perpetrator, a method in French law that leaves investigators to determine who is at fault. "We can understand there is a certain pressure, a wish to know," Schmid said - but he warned that leaking information too early can mislead the public instead of informing accurately. The French air accident investigation agency, the BEA, "will never be able to satisfy the demand for immediate information. ... It is designed to resist that," and instead is meant to focus on "establishing irrefutable facts," he said. European Cockpit Association also expressed concern about the leaks and urged further investigation before drawing final conclusions. The idea that the crash was deliberate is "shocking," it said in a statement. "Our thoughts are with the victims and their relatives. As trusted professionals, who invest a lifelong career in making air travel safe, this is a very difficult day for us." http://www.bostonherald.com/news_opinion/international/europe/ Back to Top

Crash-jet's data recorder is missing piece in explaining tragedy French Red Cross members and inhabitants pay tribute to the victims in front of a stele, a stone slab erected as a monument, set up in the area where a Germanwings aircraft crashed in the French Alps, in Le Vernet, France. Almost a week after a Germanwings jet smashed into the French Alps with the loss of 150 lives, its flight data recorder remains the missing piece in proving that co-pilot Andreas Lubitz sent the plane into its deadly dive. Evidence that Lubitz deliberately crashed the Airbus A320 operated by the Deutsche Lufthansa subsidiary after locking his captain out of the flight-deck is based on an analysis of sounds from the airliner's cockpit voice recorder, which was discovered a day after the tragedy. The theory has been backed up by a series of revelations regarding his mental state. The second device's housing has also been found, minus its contents, suggesting that an impact speed estimated at about 400 miles an hour was sufficient to rip the so-called black box apart. Even so, critical elements including computer chips that store information across hundreds of parameters are still likely to be recovered, based on past experience, experts say. "For the sake of good order in the investigation they need to have it," said Paul Hayes, safety director at London-based consultants Ascend Worldwide. "The investigators must consider everything, and make sure there wasn't some undetected problem with the aircraft." France's BEA air-accident investigator hasn't commented since a press conference to announce the discovery of the audio recorder, when it declined to provide information beyond saying that "voices" could be heard on the device. Daily phone calls and emails to the agency, responsible for leading the technical probe into the event, have since gone unanswered. Searchers at the site of the crash are also focused on finding body parts that will allow for DNA identification of those killed, partly to aid burials and bring closure for relatives, but also to ensure that all passengers and crew are accounted for and that there was no one else on board. No details have been provided on how ground teams are going about the search for the flight data recorder on the precipitous mountain slopes, though searches have ultimately proved successful in equally trying conditions in the past. After a Sukhoi Superjet 100 slammed into steep and heavily forested slopes of Mount Salak, a dormant volcano near Jakarta, in 2012, search teams managed to find both boxes. When Air France Flight 447 disappeared over the Atlantic Ocean en route from Rio De Janeiro to Paris in 2009, an ultimately fruitful undersea search for the recorders took fully two years. While the bid to locate black boxes from Malaysia Air Flight 370, which went missing last year, has so far failed, that's because the wreckage itself has yet to be located. Ascend's Hayes said investigators should be able to extract information from badly damaged data chips, even if they must be pieced together. Readings would then be married with sounds from the voice recorder to provide a second-by-second account of what happened throughout the entire flight. While the level of detail available from the voice recorder suggests that the current explanation of Germanwings Flight 9525's demise is unlikely to change, the FDR still needs to be found if all doubts are to be eliminated, Hayes said. "The worst thing you can do in an investigation is start off by saying you know the answer," he said. "You still need to do the full investigation."