The Locked Door On The Cockpit

If the lock position has not been used by the pilot for at least 5 to 20 min the cabin crew is able to request emergency access to open the cockpit door the airbus manual states.

The locked door on the cockpit. It has been described not only in various reports on the germanwings crash that a pilot had locked the cockpit door in order to lock out a colleague but also in the official final report of the french investigation authority bea. When the captain left the cockpit to go to the lavatory the first officer asked a flight attendant to bring an off duty captain aboard the plane into the cockpit. If there really was banging on the door it might also suggest there was at least air in the cabin because someone was clearly able to breathe. The two pilots locked the door.

1a crew member calls the cockpit on an intercom. After an incident in 1997 in which locked cockpit doors impeded flight attendants from telling the pilots about a smouldering fire the national transportation safety board ntsb found that locked cockpit door presented a hazard because flight attendants might not be able to use interphone link to warn the pilots in the cockpits. According to the us federal aviation administration doors should typically be tough enough to withstand a grenade blast. The airbus a320 has a reinforced door with an electronic lock that can be unlocked by a toggle switch in the cockpit or by a keypad outside the door according to a company video.

Missing evidence of the cockpit door not opening. 2after making contact the crew member presses the pound key on the keypad which sets off a buzzer inside the cockpit.