Member Article

Airlines introduce ‘rule of two’ after Germanwings crash

Two airlines have announced plans to introduce a ‘rule of two’ - meaning there much be two officials in the cockpit at all times, after a co-pilot reportedly crashed a Germanwings plane into the French Alps this week, killing all 150 passengers and crew on board.

Two budget European carriers, easyJet and Norwegian Air Shuttle, said yesterday that they would bring the new rule into almost immediate effect. Virgin Atlantic has also formalised the new rule following the tragic incident which occured earlier this week.

In a statement, Easyjet said: “easyJet can confirm that, with effect from Friday 27 March, it will change its procedure which will mean that two crew members will be in the cockpit at all times.

“This decision has been taken in consultation with the Civil Aviation Authority. The safety and security and of its passengers and crew is the airline’s highest priority.”

A spokesman for Virgin Atlantic said: “We always ensure we have the highest safety standards and, while it is our common practise to have two members of our crew in the flight deck at all times, in light of recent events we are now in the process of formalising this to be policy.”

Norwegian’s flight operations director, Thomas Hesthammer, said: “We have been discussing this for a long time but this development has accelerated things. When one person leaves the cockpit, two people will now have to be there.”

Air Canada and the Canadian charter airline Air Transat also said they would require two people to be in the cockpit at all times.

The CAA said it had requested all UK carriers formally review procedures, a spokesman said: “Following the details that have emerged regarding the tragic Germanwings incident, we are coordinating closely with colleagues at the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and have contacted all UK operators to require them to review all relevant procedures,”

US carriers already follow the “rule of two”, as do Jet2, Monarch, FlyBe and RyanAir.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ellen Forster .