Germanwings pilot got locked out of cockpit before crash in France

Mary Bruno

Mary Bruno Jul 5, 2025

Feb 6, 2018

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          <article>
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                <h1>Germanwings pilot got locked out of cockpit before crash in France</h1>
                <h2><p>In the early part of the flight from Barcelona to Düsseldorf, a crash investigator who had listened to the cockpit voice recorder told The New York Times, after some “very smooth, very cool” conversation between the doomed plane's pilots, one of them left the cockpit and never got</p></h2>
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               <p>By <a href="/author/mary-bruno-crosscut-com/">Mary Bruno</a></p> 
              <p><time datetime="2025-02-04T05:00:00-08:00">Feb 6, 2018</time></p>
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            <p>In the early part of the flight from Barcelona to Düsseldorf, a crash investigator who had listened to the cockpit voice recorder <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/26/world/europe/germanwings-airbus-crash.html?hp=&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=photo-spot-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0&ref=dev.cascadepbs.org">told <em>The New York Times</em></a>, after some “very smooth, very cool” conversation between the doomed plane's pilots, one of them left the cockpit and never got back in. “The guy outside is knocking lightly on the door, and there is no answer,” the investigator told <em>The Times</em>. “And then he hits the door stronger, and no answer. There is never an answer. You can hear he is trying to smash the door down ... At the very end of the flight, the other pilot is alone and does not open the door.”</p>
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In the early part of the flight from Barcelona to Düsseldorf, a crash investigator who had listened to the cockpit voice recorder told The New York Times, after some “very smooth, very cool” conversation between the doomed plane's pilots, one of them left the cockpit and never got back in. “The guy outside is knocking lightly on the door, and there is no answer,” the investigator told The Times. “And then he hits the door stronger, and no answer. There is never an answer. You can hear he is trying to smash the door down ... At the very end of the flight, the other pilot is alone and does not open the door.”

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By Mary Bruno

Mary was Crosscut's Editor-in-Chief and Interim Publisher. In more than 25 years as a journalist, she has worked as a writer, editor and editorial director for a variety of print and web publications,