How safe is Germanwings alias Lufthansa?

Missing safety policy: How safe is Germanwings alias Lufthansa?

Lufthansa staff are mostly happy parents with frustrated Germanwing kids. Safety has always been a number one priority for Lufthansa, and an excellent safety record together with German efficiency shows this.

However a simple safety policy in place in the United States and for all U.S. based airline carriers since the 911 terror attack is not part of a policy Lufthansa and other non US airlines have on their books.

Could this missing policy be the reason for 150 passengers dead on the crashed Germanwings Duesseldorf- Barcelona flight?

Since 1998 Germanwings GmbH is a German low cost airline based in Cologne, which is 100% owned by Lufthansa.

Recently Germanwings took over many European Lufthansa air routes.
Lufthansa is a member of the Star Alliance, Germanwings is not.
Both airlines use the same design for boarding passes, but there is a difference.

When booking Germanwings passengers pay for bags, Star Alliance Gold passengers flying on Germanwings can no longer access Lufthansa lounges, no miles are credited to most Star Alliance frequent flyer programs. Pilots and flight attendants are getting paid less on Germanwings compared to Lufthansa.

Older airplanes like the Germanwings A320 are getting shifted from Lufthansa to Germanwings.

What is the missing safety policy possibly responsible for the crash in the French Alps?

American flag carriers are required to have two people in the cockpit at all times. The Germanwings A320 plane had two pilots in the cockpit, but one left for a restroom visit.

If Lufthansa would have operated under U.S. rule and once a pilot uses the restroom, a flight attendant will have to go into the cockpit. If the remaining co-pilot becomes incapacitated, this flight attendant could have opened the cockpit door for the returning pilot after his or her restroom break.

Based on new information available, the pilot on the crashed airliner was unable to get back into the cockpit after using the restroom. The cockpit door was locked, only the remaining pilot was inside the cockpit not responding to anything.

There is an emergency code to open the cockpit door from the outside, unless this code is disabled from the inside. Why was the locked out pilot unable to enter the cockpit using the emergency code. Did he forget the code, or did the pilot disable the code from the inside?

Was the pilot inside the cockpit asleep, did he have a heart attack, or was he on a suicide or terror mission? There is nothing yet known on who flew the plane.

eTurboNews reached out to Lufthansa to find out more about this pilot. It's very unusual after two days to not have released the names and other details on the pilots of a crashed aircraft.

eTurboNews also tried to verify why Lufthansa safety experts did not feel the two staff policy in the cockpit was important. Lufthansa did respond to eTN. This policy is not required according to German safety rules.

The service level on Lufthansa and many other European based airlines may be better compared to U.S. based airlines. But the question remains. Are European airlines less safe because of lack rules?

Click here and read what happened on 4U 9525

ENDS

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