Co-Pilot Deliberately Crashed Germanwings Plane

[johnnya24]

Holy crap ... the co-pilot apparently locked the pilot out of the cockpit, then crashed it. Looks like some kind of crazy murder-suicide. Madness.

[TranaGreg]

yeah, it's a strange news day ...

[DMT]

How in the world have they granted pilots the power to lock their co-pilots out?

[johnnya24]

How in the world have they granted pilots the power to lock their co-pilots out?

Apparently this kind of incident was debated within the industry in the wake of the post-911 decision to turn the cockpits into fortresses.

I'm guessing the bigger danger comes if a pilot is unable to regain entry, and the pilot inside gets ill or has a heart attack or something ... then what do you do?

[DMT]

I can understand protecting the cockpits from passengers, but not co-pilots.

[Lucky]

U.S. procedure requires two people in the cockpit at all times. If a pilot has to leave, one of the flight attendants goes in. Not sure that would have helped in this case, but it could help in the case of a co-pilot getting sick while the pilot is in the head.

[Lucky]

What he said. This airline didn't have that policy.

[revo]

This has me incredibly sick. All those poor innocents killed. Why couldn't this fucker just jump off the Golden Gate, shown in the pic being distributed?

[onejayhawk]

This has me incredibly sick. All those poor innocents killed. Why couldn't this fucker just jump off the Golden Gate, shown in the pic being distributed?

Is this worse than a suicide bombing in a restaurant or theater?

J

[johnnya24]

Is this worse than a suicide bombing in a restaurant or theater?

J

Different, but yes, worse ... marginally worse. Suicide bombers have been brainwashed by a warped religious ideology. There is some demented fucked up reasoning there. This asshole just decided to take 150 people to their grave because he was a depressed, fame seeking, psychopath who wanted to go out with a bang.

[bryanbutler]

jesus h. that's terrible.

[revo]

Is this worse than a suicide bombing in a restaurant or theater?

J

Much, much, much worse.

A pilot is obviously an individual who's entrusted, after years and years of schooling and experience, to do a job a small handful of people can actually do, and to guide you and your family safely from point A to point B. You don't quiz your pilot on his or her merits when boarding, so you're kind of placing all of your trust in the individual, and the airline in choosing this person, that they will do everything they can to get you to your destination safely.

Suicide bombers are certainly not "entrusted individuals."

[onejayhawk]

I see. Like a cop setting off a bomb or arson by fire department.

J

[revo]

I see. Like a cop setting off a bomb or arson by fire department.

J

And man, thinking about this more, at least with a suicide bomber it just "happens" and you're left with the pieces. In this case, 148 souls saw their plane descend into a mountain range while the pilot attempted to bash down the door right in front of them. It's hard to know what they may have been thinking, but terrorism or a hijacking must not have been far off. And then terror as the mountains drew closer and the captain's actions likely grew more panicked.

[johnnya24]

Now they are saying he had a history of depression and was under constant assessment. Prosecutors have found torn up sick notes, even from the day of the incident.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-32087203

Interestingly, this is apparently the 4th time an incident like this has occurred in the last ~15 years.

Other incidents thought to be caused by deliberate pilot action:

29 November 2013: A flight between Mozambique and Angola crashed in Namibia, killing 33 people. Initial investigation results suggested the accident was deliberately carried out by the captain shortly after the first officer (also known as the co-pilot) had left the flight deck.

31 October 1999: An EgyptAir Boeing 767 went into a rapid descent 30 minutes after taking off from New York, killing 217 people. An investigation suggested that the crash was caused deliberately by the relief first officer but the evidence was not conclusive.

19 December 1997: More than 100 people were killed when a Boeing 737 travelling from Indonesia to Singapore crashed. The pilot - suffering from "multiple work-related difficulties" - was suspected of switching off the flight recorders and intentionally putting the plane into a dive.