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Monday, July 7, 2014

MH370: Did Capt Zaharie LOCK OUT co-pilot or did HIJACKERS break through cockpit door?

MH370: Did Capt Zaharie LOCK OUT co-pilot or did HIJACKERS break through cockpit door?
Today’s stories about a captain briefly locking his first officer out of the cockpit of an Air NZ 777 somewhere between Perth and Auckland are weird in their own right, and touch on something that could be of critical importance in the mystery of missing 777 flight, MH370.
And that something is the ease with which the supposedly secure doors of a 777 cockpit can by bypassed by anyone who knows about this ‘trick’ which Boeing and airlines have been warned about for years, without any of them showing any signs of paying the slightest bit of attention to it.
But because this means fitting two outrageous situations into one story, let’s start with the Air NZ cockpit stories.
The first comes from the NZ Herald (scroll below for story Mid-air drama on Air NZ flight) and the second from Fairfax (scroll below for story Pilot locked out of Air New Zealand cockpit after mid-air dispute )
Trick known to every pilot, cabin attendant on 777s
Read them? Good. The only thing the public can take away from them with confidence was that the incident was sufficiently serious to stand each pilot down for a period of weeks. Therefore the incident was not insignificant, even if it was silly or weird or whacky in some way.
Note the reference in each to alternative undisclosed access. Be assured, this did not involve going outside and crawling along the fuselage to enter via the windows. No Sir.
It involved something that is little more difficult to do than adjusting your shoe laces and can be assumed to be known to every pilot and cabin attendant who works on 777s.

Plane Talking isn’t the only publication which has been urged by one or more ‘concerned’ pilot or cabin attendant to publicize this (once rehearsed) very fast way of getting past the locked door, and none of us are in the business of such a breach of common sense or causing a threat to public safety.
But the inaction of the plane maker and the safety authorities and airlines is another matter best decided elsewhere.
Easy-to-bypass doors makes it easy to enter MH370 cockpit
So what has this got to do, however remotely possibly, with MH370? About an hour after the Malaysia Airlines flight disappeared as a transponder identified flight between Kuala Lumpur and Beijing on 8 March there was an abnormal communication initiated by the ACARS fitted jet which told an Inmarsat satellite that it was ready to transmit engine performance data if required.
Co-pilot Fariq came under attack for allowing a passenger into the cockpit during a previous flight
As outlined in this post, a possible explanation for this abnormality would have been an electrical systems recovery from a transient power failure which may have been caused by tampering, but could have been entirely unrelated to any such interference. Note the terms possibly and may.
Anyone with the necessary systems knowledge of 777s who wanted to interfere with the power supply or other electronic systems on the airliner would not be inhibited by the easy to bypass locked cockpit door.
But was it MH370's own crew or hijackers with 'evil intent'
Silly as it may have been, the Air NZ incident reminds us that there is a hole in the 777 cockpit security arrangements, and while it was exploited by its own crew on this occasion, it could, might, maybe, have been exploited with evil intent on MH370.
Left: Saajid Muhammad Badat - an Al-Qaeda supergrass told a US court in March 2014 that four to five Malaysian men had been planning to take control of a plane, using a bomb hidden in a shoe to blow open the cockpit door. Security experts said the evidence from the convicted British terrorist was “credible”. The supergrass said that he had met the Malaysian jihadists – one of whom was a pilot – in Afghanistan and given them a shoe bomb to use to take control of an aircraft.The possibility of such a plot, hatched by the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks on the Twin Towers in New York, was bolstered by an admission by Najib Razak, Malaysia’s prime minister, that the Boeing 777’s communications systems had been deliberately switched off “by someone on the plane”. - Malaysia Chronicle
As with any suspicions concerning MH370, there are factual reasons to support a range of scenarios. Yet such theories are nothing more than constructs woven around isolated data points that make assumptions about motives and actions for which we do not have (in the public domain) the slightest piece of material evidence to support them.  - Plane Talking, Crikey.com.au
Mid-air drama on Air NZ flight
Two Air New Zealand pilots were stood down and their cabin crew offered counselling after a frightening mid-air incident on a packed transtasman flight.
The drama unfolded on flight NZ176 between Perth and Auckland on May 21, when the first officer was locked out of the cockpit for two minutes.
The captain did not respond to requests to open the locked door, alarming crew. The pair had apparently fallen out over a take-off delay.
One expert says two minutes is "an eternity" on a flight — and the incident, on a Boeing 777-200 carrying 303 people, has sparked calls for a third crew member to be added to flight decks so no one is ever alone in the cockpit.
Air NZ spokeswoman Marie Hosking said the first officer and crew became concerned after the captain did not respond to three requests over two minutes from a cabin crew member to open the cockpit door.
The first officer eventually used an alternative method to access the cockpit. For security reasons, the airline would not say how.
"Naturally, cabin crew operating the flight were concerned about the inability to contact the captain and became quite anxious," said the national carrier's operational integrity and safety manager Errol Burtenshaw.
Both pilots were stood down - the captain for two weeks and the first officer for a week. Photo / File
Both pilots were stood down - the captain for two weeks and the first officer for a week. Photo / File
They were offered the support of the company's employee assistance programme after the flight.
Both pilots were stood down — the captain for two weeks and the first officer for a week, and given counselling and additional training.
There was "some tension" between the pilots after a 13-minute delay to the flight's departure after the first officer had to take part in a random drug and alcohol test.
"This departure delay frustrated the captain who prides himself on operational efficiency."
Safety and security were paramount and the incident was "unfortunate", Burtenshaw said.
"Both pilots have learned a valuable lesson around the need to communicate better with peers."
He said the captain did not respond or open the door because he was approaching a navigational waypoint and in his cockpit monitor saw a cabin crew member rather than the first officer ringing.
The airline provided a report on the incident to the Civil Aviation Authority. Spokesman Mike Richards said it was satisfied with Air NZ's actions.
But aviation commentator Peter Clark said the incident showed it was time all airlines put a third crew member in the cockpit. "After [the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight] MH370 there's definitely questions being asked about whether there should be more than two people on the flight deck."
The Beijing-bound Boeing 777 and its 239 passengers and crew vanished after the plane left Kuala Lumpur on March 8. A Malaysian investigation last month identified the captain as the chief suspect, if human intervention was to blame.
Clark said there was no excuse for the Air NZ captain to not immediately respond to calls, given the MH370 mystery and the fate of other flights, including an Ethiopian Airlines flight hijacked by its asylum-seeking co-pilot this year.
"You can push a button and say 'I'm busy' ... two minutes is an eternity when people reflect on MH370. The transponder can be turned off, the flight co-ordinates changed, the plane depressurised.
"It shouldn't have happened." - Herald on Sunday
Pilot locked out of Air New Zealand cockpit after mid-air dispute
A 13-minute takeoff delay caused so much tension between two Air New Zealand pilots that the first officer was locked out of the cockpit on a flight between Perth and Auckland.
On May 21, flight NZ176 was delayed after the first officer was asked to undertake a random drug and alcohol test. This was enough to enrage the captain, for whom timeliness was a matter of great pride.
Crew on board the packed Boeing 777 became concerned when the captain did not respond to three requests to open the cockpit door. The first officer then entered the cockpit by an alternative method, which was not disclosed for security reasons.
Both pilots have been stood down over the incident and will be subject to additional training and counselling.
An unnamed expert told the NZ Herald two minutes is "an eternity" on board a flight.
Aviation commentator Peter Clark called on airlines to put at least three people in the cockpit so no-one is ever alone at the flight deck.
"After [the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight] MH370 there's definitely questions being asked about whether there should be more than two people on the flight deck," he said.
Locked out: Air New Zealand described the pilots' mid-air falling out as 'unfortunate'.
Locked out: Air New Zealand described the pilots' mid-air falling out as 'unfortunate'. Photo: Bloomberg
New Zealand's Civil Aviation Authority said it was satisfied with a report on the incident provided by Air New Zealand.
"Both pilots have learned a valuable lesson around the need to communicate better with peers," Air New Zealand's operational integrity and safety manager Errol Burtenshaw told the NZ Herald.
According to Mr Burtenshaw, the captain did not open the door because he was approaching a navigational waypoint and thought it was a member of the cabin crew - rather than his co-pilot - attempting to enter the cockpit.
Commercial flights are typically piloted by a captain and a first officer, but may also include a flight engineer, check captains and other staff. In May last year, an Air India jet made an emergency landing after the captain was locked out during a toilet break and crew could not re-open the cockpit door.
In 1999, an EgyptAir Boeing 767 bound for Cairo from New York crashed with 217 people on board. Although disputed by Egyptian investigators, the US National Transportation Safety Bureau found the relief first officer had deliberately plunged the jet to the ground while the relief captain was out of the cockpit on a toilet break.  http://www.smh.com.au/travel/travel-incidents/pilot-locked-out-of-air-new-zealand-cockpit-after-midair-dispute-20140706-zsxra.html#ixzz36ezWiIef

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