Pilots’ Union Issues Press Release That States It 'Deplores and Condemns the Leak of Certain Elements of the Cockpit Voice Recorder of Germanwings Flight 4U9525'

Germanwings 4U9525 accident investigation: IFALPA strongly condemns leaking of CVR data

March 26, 2015

Press Release – The International Federation of Air Line Pilots’ Associations (IFALPA) deplores and condemns yesterday's leaking of certain elements of the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) of the Germanwings flight 4U9525.

Not only do these leaks contravene the internationally agreed principles of accident investigation confidentiality set out in ICAO Annex 13, they are also a breach of trust to all those involved in the investigation and to the families of the victims. Furthermore, leaks of this nature greatly harm flight safety since they invite ill-informed speculation from the media and the general public and discourage cooperation with investigators in future accidents .

IFALPA once again stresses that the sole purpose of a CVR is to aid investigators in determining the factors leading to an accident and not to apportion blame or be used outside of its safety context. CVR details should only be publicly released following a thorough and complete investigation of the events that occurred, and not prematurely during the course of the field portion of the accident investigation, underway for less than 48 hours.

Leaking premature, unanalyzed, and partial CVR recordings, which lack the context of the entire body of factual investigative data, severely interferes with the investigative process, and can only lead to early conclusions on what exactly occurred during the time leading up to the accident. Any other use of CVR data is not only invalid, but is an unacceptable invasion of privacy best described as a search for sensationalism and voyeurism of the worst kind.

It is vital for the investigating body to ensure all information under their control is properly handled until the completion of the investigation.

In this early stage of the investigation, many critical questions remain to be answered, and IFALPA stresses the need for an objective accident investigation process through the collection of all the facts needed to draw an accurate analysis of events. Once again, IFALPA’s resources are at the disposal of the Accident Investigation Agencies to achieve these aims.


Note to Editors: The International Federation of Air Line Pilots’ Associations represents in excess of 100,000 pilots in more than 100 countries worldwide. IFALPA’s mission is to be the global voice of airline pilots, promoting the highest level of aviation safety and security worldwide and providing services, support and representation to all of its Member Associations. See the Federation website www.ifalpa.org.

Pilots’ Union: Germanwings CVR Data Leak ‘Serious Breach’ of Rules

March  27, 2015

Air Transport World - The European Cockpit Association (ECA), which represents over 38,000 pilots across Europe, has struck out over Germanwings flight 9525 cockpit voice recorder (CVR) data being made public.

“The leaking of the CVR data is a serious breach of fundamental and globally accepted international accident investigation rules. The motivation for and consequences of this will need to be addressed,” ECA said.

On Thursday, French prosecutor Brice Robin said the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) analysis revealed that co-pilot Andreas Lubitz was alone in the cockpit at the time of the crash; the flight’s captain was apparently locked out. “While he is alone, the co-pilot presses the buttons of the flight monitoring system to put into action the descent of the airplane,” Robin said, adding, “This action on the altitude controls can only be deliberate.”

The body acknowledged that questions remain unanswered, even though many facts point to one particular theory for the cause of this event. However, it stressed that thorough analysis of technical data from the flight data recorder as part of an unbiased, independent investigation will be “crucial” in verifying what happened.

“Given the level of pressure this leak has undoubtedly created, the investigation team faces a serious distraction. The required lead of safety investigators appears to have been displaced by prosecutorial considerations. This is highly prejudicial, and an impediment to making aviation safer with lessons from the tragedy,” the union said.

Early Reports from French Prosecutor and German Tabloid Bild

Very bizzare scenes on this slideshow:

Transponder data shows that the autopilot was reprogrammed during the flight by someone inside the cockpit to change the plane's altitude from 38,000 feet to 100 feet, according to Flightradar24, a website that tracks aviation data.

The images of the accident were released six hours after the crash.

Early reports on March 24, 2015, said "the owner of a camp site in the French Alps near the scene of the crash says he heard a series of loud noises coming from the air before the Germanwings A320 Airbus crashed. Pierre Polizzi told AP the noise began at 11:30 local time. "There are often fighter jets flying over, so I thought it sounded just like that. I looked outside but I couldn't see any fighter planes. The noise I heard was long - like 8 seconds - as if the plane was going more slowly than a military plane speed. There was another long noise about 30 seconds later." That puts it in the realm of overhead explosion. If there was an emergency situation the passengers would have time to send messages via their mobile phones? But if it was an explosion, no way.

Early reports said air traffic controllers declared there was a distress phase at 10:47 AM, which is a situation where there is a reasonable certainty that an aircraft and its occupants are threatened by grave and imminent danger or require immediate assistance. France's Air Traffic Control reported there had been no emergency call from the aircraft. Reuters published this statement from DGAC: "The aircraft did not itself make a distress call but it was the combination of the loss of radio contact and the aircraft’s descent which led the controller to implement the distress phase." Marseille controllers declared Mayday for the aircraft when they observed the aircraft below safe altitude. 


Additional early reports said: "The pilots of the crashed German aircraft for unknown reason were unconscious during 8-minute-long descend. This information was received after decoding one of the black boxes."

On March 27, the MSM reported that rescue workers examining the Germanwings air disaster crash site have found no intact bodies and up to 600 pieces of human remains. If there were no intact bodies, what is depicted in the photo below from the day before, March 26th?



On the day of the crash, the prosecutor of Marseillies, Brice Robin, recounted what he had seen from the helicopter that flew over the crash zone. "The plane exploded. The bodies are heavily damaged. There are some pieces of exploded cabin. It's very impressive." On the evaluation of the drama, the magistrate floated a little hope: "A priori, there are no survivors, but according to the latest information, there may be a body that moves." Lieutenant Colonel Jean-Paul Bloy, commanding the Southern Air Forces Group, said the bodies of the victims were "relatively scattered over an area of one hectare," "very rough" and "difficult to access."