CAAP imposes 2-man cockpit rule for planes

The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) introduced last week a rule for two persons to be inside a commercial airplane’s cockpit at all times.

CAAP Director General William Hotchkiss III said the slight change in the Philippine Civil Aviation Regulations (PCAR) is very serious and necessary to avoid an incident similar to the Germanwings plane which was intentionally crashed into the French Alps by a mentally unstable pilot.

READ: Pilot ‘locked out of cockpit’ before French Alps crash

The March 24 crash of Germanwings flight 9525 killed all 150 passengers after 28-year-old German pilot Andreas Lubitz manually and intentionally drove the plane into the side of a mountain when he was left alone inside the cockpit by the captain who had to use the lavatory.

The revision to the PCAR will take effect 15 days after its publication in the Official Gazette or in newspapers of general circulation. Jeannette I. Andrade

RELATED STORY

‘Black box’ shows co-pilot sped up German plane on descent