"Although conclusions regarding the Germanwings are not official yet, the co-pilot is suspected to have locked the flight commander out of the cockpit and crashed the plane. In response to that we would like to reassure our passengers confirming that two crew members are always present in the cockpit during the flights with no exception – it is a standard procedure at our company," said Kęstutis Zagreckas, Deputy Director Flight Operations, Captain at Air Lituanica.
According to the captain, when a pilot leaves the cockpit, his place is temporarily taken by another crew member – flight attendant. "The safety is our highest priority therefore such preventive measures are employed in our company for more than a year already despite they were not required under the safety regulations," said K. Zagreckas.
A lot of different measures are employed by airlines to ensure flight safety; technical condition of aircraft has a major importance too. Therefore aircrafts are checked by technical maintenance personnel before and after each flight – not a single aircraft takes off without an aviation engineer inspection. Depending on the aircraft type, the number of hours flown, the cycle count, and calendar time of aircraft operation, every aircraft manufacturer produces strict rules – a mandatory description for operation of aircrafts to follow for the airlines.
K. Zagreckas emphasized the high importance of the situation control during the flight. In the event of any trouble in respect of passenger behaviour or sudden health disorders, all the issues must be solved by the crew. Flight attendants are carefully selected, they constantly improve to be able to handle difficult situations and help passengers and other crew members. If a breakdown or any other threat is detected during the flight, the aircraft captain evaluates the situation and often makes a decision to land in the nearest airport and resolve the issues.
European Aviation Safety Agency is the principal body regulating the safety policy, operation and procedures of the airlines. The flight safety of Air Lituanica flights is also based on the requirements of the Agency.
