Germanwings claims it is 'too early' to consider changing safety procedures amid reports pilot was locked out of cockpit

Airline will not review its measures until 'confirmed facts' are available

The expert said: 'Flying straight into the mountains makes no sense' (Reuters)

Germanwings has said it is “too early” to consider changing their existing safety procedures amid reports a pilot on the doomed Airbus A320 was locked out of the cockpit as the plane descended.

Reports emerged this morning claiming voice recordings from one of the black boxes retrieved from the crash site revealed one of the two pilots on board left the cockpit and was unable to return.

A senior military official quoted by The New York Times said someone could be heard “trying to smash the door down” in evidence from a cockpit voice recorder.

A spokesperson for the airline told The Independent it will not be reviewing its safety process until “confirmed facts” are made available after being asked if reports that the pilot had been locked out of the cockpit mean the airline should reconsider its flight deck security measures.

The spokesperson said: “It is far too early to draw conclusions about adjusting existing processes and proceedings. We will make such an examination in any case as soon as we have confirmed facts available.”

Lufthansa and Germanwings will hold a joint press conference in Cologne at 1.30pm today amid growing demands for an official response to the cockpit voice recordings.

Access to the flight deck is one area expected to come under scrutiny following the crash, according to The Independent’s travel correspondent Simon Calder. He said the topics already under discussion include removing the “deadlock” option, changing the access code for every flight or even allowing some kind of override for the cockpit door to be triggered by controllers on the ground.