EU agency may advise airlines adopt two person cockpit norm: source

[March 27, 2015]  PARIS (Reuters) - 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.

(Reporting By Tim Hepher, editing by Philip Blenkinsop)

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