(Bloomberg) -- Security regulations introduced after the Sept. 11 terror attacks mean that even a .44 Magnum would have been useless in penetrating the cockpit door of the Germanwings jet that crashed in the Alps last week killing 150 people.
An aircraft’s bulkhead, door and other boundaries separating the flight-deck from areas occupied by passengers must be able to resist “forcible intrusion,” including small-arms fire, according to European Aviation Safety Agency rules, rendering them impenetrable even to armed sky marshals.
“While sky marshals do carry guns, the door to the cockpit is bulletproof, so they would likely not be able to make a difference,” said Joerg Handwerg, a spokesman for German pilot union Vereinigung Cockpit. The first officer of the Germanwings Airbus Group NV A320 is said by investigators to have locked the captain out of the flight-deck before crashing the plane.
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