Plane crash sparks flight safety debate

Airline tragedies like Tuesday’s Germanwings crash in the French Alps likely won’t prevent students from flying, but it’s enough to add to flight anxiety.

UNC freshman Ace Motas and senior Ted McRae both said that the crash, which killed 150 people, will be on their minds next time they fly.

“As I’ve learned more details about this plane crash and about the pilot’s actions, it has made me kind of nervous about flying,” McRae said. “It’s very concerning even if the likelihood is miniscule.”

Motas, who prefers to go on road trips instead of flying, said it is frightening to think about being in that situation, though he said isolated incidents like the Germanwings crash don’t concern him too much.

“If you look at the number of plane crashes compared to the number of successful flights, it’s a really small number,” he said.

The investigation of the flight 9525 crash has revealed disturbing new facts throughout the past week. Officials have determined that co-pilot Andreas Lubitz, 27, intentionally crashed the plane, though the investigation is ongoing. Lubitz was still in the cockpit and breathing before the crash.

French prosecutor Brice Robin said in a news conference Thursday that no distress signals came from the aircraft before the crash.

Lubitz told Captain Patrick Sondenheimer that he could leave the cockpit any time, then locked him out before the crash, according to CNN.

The New York Times reported that Lubitz might have had a medical issue — specifically with his eyes — that could have ended his pilot career and might have contributed to the crash.

The incident has also caused widespread debate about flight protocol and safety mechanisms, including some that were put into place following the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

One major post-9/11 change involved reinforcing cockpit doors so people would not be able to break in, said Fuh-Gwo Yuan, a mechanical and aerospace engineering professor at N.C. State University.

Yuan said it is best for airlines to have two people in the cockpit at all time — a rule that is standard in America but generally a policy created by individual airlines abroad.

Kuldeep Rawat, director of the aviation science program at Elizabeth City State University, said in an email that the cockpit door of an Airbus 320 — the model that crashed — can be unlocked from the outside through an electronic keypad, but the pilot inside the cockpit can override the lock for a period of five minutes.

There is an escape door that can be accessed in case of electronic failure, Rawat said, but a person within the cockpit can prevent it from opening.

East Carolina University senior John Leopard said situations like these scare him.

“In reality there is nothing I can do,” Leopard said. “My life is in their hands when I go up.”

Leopard, who said he is a frequent flyer, said that flights are more comfortable when the flight attendants talk to him.

“Usually I let them know that I hate flying,” he said. “Sometimes they talk to me and make me feel better.”

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