EU agency may advise airlines adopt 2-person cockpit norm: source

[PARIS] The European Union's air safety regulator may advise airlines to ensure that two crew members are in the cockpit of passenger planes at all times, in the wake of a suspected suicide crash of a Germanwings airliner, a source familiar with the matter said on Friday.

"It is one option currently being evaluated. If it happens it won't be a compulsory rule, but a recommendation," the source said.

Such a recommendation by the European Aviation Safety Agency would achieve quicker results than the lengthy process to produce a binding law. A number of airlines have implemented the rule since it emerged that a German co-pilot may have deliberated crashed the Germanwings airliner after locking himself alone in the cockpit.

REUTERS