Not directly, but if the co-pilot was unconscious (or dead; heart attack at the wheel does happen) and the automatic flight control systems weren't keeping the plane level or weren't turned on for some reason.. and we know there was a safety advisory last year after a similar aircraft entered an uncontrolled descent at the command of the flight control computer and was only recovered after the pilots disconnected all electronic systems from the flight controls (something that, I believe, requires them to exit the cockpit)..
A senior French military official involved in the investigation described a “very smooth, very cool” conversation between the pilots during the early part of the flight from Barcelona, Spain, to Düsseldorf, Germany. Then the audio indicated that one of the pilots left the cockpit and could not re-enter.
“The guy outside is knocking lightly on the door, and there is no answer,” the investigator said. “And then he hits the door stronger, and no answer. There is never an answer.”
He said, “You can hear he is trying to smash the door down.”
I'm going to assume, here, that for the entire length of the descent the pilot knew something was wrong and was trying to fix it - I can only imagine his abject terror at being unable to re-enter the cockpit to regain control of the aircraft for
eight minutes. Eight minutes knowing the end is inevitable and there's nothing you can do about it..
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Topic: Air Crash (Read 3486 times)