Like Germanwings, a Plane Crashed in Africa due to Pilot’s Insanity. The Iata didn’t React

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Our Special Correspondent
Massimo A. Alberizzi
Nairobi, 30^th March 2015

There are many similarities between the Germanwings’s plane crash provoked by the German Andreas Lubitz, co-pilot of the Airbus A320, flight 4u 9525 from Barcelona to Dusseldorf on 24^th March 2015, where 150 people were killed, and the Mozambique airlanes’ plane crash on 29^th November 2013. The plane was piloted by Herminio Dos Santos Fernandes , LAM (Linhas Aéreas de Moçambique) and was on the way from Maputo to Luanda (Angola). Both planes were deliberately crashed.

The 22th December 2013,  the head of the Civil Aviation Institute, Joao Abreu, told  Herminio dos Santos Fernandes, had a “clear intention” to crash. The inquiries were conducted by Namibians, Brazilians, Mozambiques and Americans. The plane crashed in Namibia.

During a news conference Abreu said: “Dos Santos Fernandes locked himself in the cockpit, and did not allow his co-pilot back inside until moments before the plane hit the ground”. Abreu did not explain the reason for the behaviour of the pilot, but he said that, according to the registration of the black  box,  the co-pilot was punching against the door and was screaming several times.

LAM’s plane was quite new, it’s first flight was in November 2012; during the crash 32 people died, including the four crew members.

For security reasons LAM cannot fly in Europe, but LAM  is a IATA member, International Air Transport Association, and the management of IATA was informed about the reasons of that crash. So why, since December 2013, has nobody from IATA proposed a new regulation: two people in the cockpit at all times? This procedure now, after the Germanwings crash, should be accepted as soon as possible by all companies.

Maybe somebody thought that the LAM crash was a typical story from the “Wild Africa” that could never happen  in the civilized Europe and especially in the super efficient Germany.

The question that now we pose is: Somebody after the crash of the Mozambican plane in Namibia asked to improve the security rules to prevent that an insane pilot to provoke another catastrophe like that of Germanwings?

Massimo A. Alberizzi
massimo.alberizzi@gmail.com
twitter @malberizzi

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