Following the incident of a Germanwings Airbus A320 co-pilot who allegedly locked the pilot out and then crashed the plane in the French Alps, the Civil Aviation Authority of Bandaranaike International Airport yesterday said it will require SriLankan airlines and Mihin Air always to have two authorised crew members in the cockpit.

"When one of the pilots leave the cockpit, the pilot in charge will require a chief flight attendant to enter the cockpit and thus guarantee at all times that the door can be opened to allow entry," the Director General of Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), H.M.C.Nimalsiri said.

He also said that a new set of safety standards as measures to be taken in an emergency had been included into the criteria followed by pilots and co-pilots.
Medical checkups and training programmes for the airline staff had been focused thoroughly by the CAA and through the new standards, CAA hopes to ensure the safety of airline passengers.

During the first three months of this year there have been four airline accidents around the world including TransAsia Airways flight 235 crash into a river killing 42 people, Delta Airlines flight 1086 skidding off and injuring over a dozen of people, Air Canada flight 624 hit the power lines leaving 23 people injured and the Germanwings flight 9525 crash killing 150 people on board.(Piyumi Fonseka)