Four days after a 27-year-old co-pilot locked his pilot out of the cockpit and smashed a Germanwings passenger plane into an Alpine mountain, killing 150, Germany’s aviation authority says it will now require two people to remain in a plane's cockpit at all times.
"In coordination with Germany’s aviation authority, the other German airlines and the German aviation industry association, the airlines of the Lufthansa Group are to adopt a new cockpit occupancy procedure as a precautionary measure," Lufthansa, the company that owns Germanwings, announced Friday morning.
Under the new procedure, Lufthansa said, two "authorized persons" must remain in the cockpit at all times during a flight.
The rule comes one day after investigators said the co-pilot of Germanwings Flight 9525, Andreas Lubitz, locked his pilot out of the cockpit, and intentionally ordered the plane's autopilot to descend into the mountainside.
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The other pilot repeatedly tried to break his way into the cockpit with increasing desperation, eventually using an axe, but was unsuccessful, a German newspaper reported.
The last sounds picked up by the cockpit voice recorder before it went silent were the smashing of the door, blaring alarms and, finally, the screams of passengers.
Victims of the crash, which pulverized the plane and killed everyone on board, included 72 Germans, 48 Spaniards, more than a dozen high school students, a pair of opera singers and two babies.
The German airlines join others throughout the world that began reassessing their safety policies on Thursday in the wake of the crash.
Norwegian Air, EasyJet and Air Canada all announced they will change their policies to require that two crew members be in the cockpit at all times. If a pilot leaves — to go to the bathroom, for example, as investigators suspect happened in Tuesday's crash — a flight attendant or other crew member will have to be stationed in the cockpit.
[img src="http://admin.mashable.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Airbus-Cockpit.jpg" caption="Two "pilots" sit in a flight simulator's Airbus 320 cockpit." credit="Bernd Thissen/picture-alliance/dpa/AP Images" alt="Airbus Cockpit"]
U.S. carriers typically require a second crew member to always be present in the cockpit. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has elaborate regulations around cockpit access by crew, which were established after 9/11.
“In the U.S., nearly all major carriers … when a pilot goes out of the cockpit, there is actually a very formal protocol that they follow with the cabin crew,” Patrick Cropper, principal with ICF Consulting, told Mashable.
"In order to operate the flight-deck door during flight time, and permit flight-deck access by persons authorized in accordance with [FAA regulations]," the FAA states, certified airlines "must develop and use FAA-approved procedures regarding the opening, closing and locking of the flight deck door."
Many European carriers do not require a second crew member in the cockpit — but that, it appears, is changing quickly.
On Friday, the European Aviation Safety Agency announced a temporary recommendation for airlines "to ensure that at least two crew, including at least one qualified pilot, are in the flight crew compartment at all times of the flight."
"Airlines should re-assess the safety and security risks associated with a flight crew leaving the cockpit due to operational or physiological needs," EASA said in the statement.
"While we are still mourning the victims, all our efforts focus on improving the safety and security of passengers and crews," said Patrick Ky, EASA executive director.