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posted by LaminatorX on Thursday March 26 2015, @04:19PM   Printer-friendly
from the trust-no-one dept.

BBC reports the co-pilot of the Germanwings flight that crashed in the Alps intentionally locked the pilot out of the cabin and initiated the flight's descent into the ground:

The co-pilot of the Germanwings flight that crashed in the French Alps, named as Andreas Lubitz, appeared to want to "destroy the plane", officials said.

Marseille prosecutor Brice Robin, citing information from the "black box" voice recorder, said the co-pilot was alone in the cockpit.

He intentionally started a descent while the pilot was locked out.

Mr Robin said there was "absolute silence in the cockpit" as the pilot fought to re-enter it.

Air traffic controllers made repeated attempts to contact the aircraft, but to no avail, he said.

The story seems SN-worthy because it is an object lesson in the consequences for our lives when we put complex machines and systems into the hands of others. In this case it was a trained pilot who killed a plane full of people who were powerless to stop him. Another example could be engineers who sabotage a dam and wipe out entire communities downstream. We mostly don't think about stuff like this because there is an invisible web of trust, sometimes called a "social contract," that leads people to get on a plane, or go to work, or take their kids to school without giving it a second thought. But when that social contract unravels, all bets are off...

 
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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by PinkyGigglebrain on Thursday March 26 2015, @06:06PM

    by PinkyGigglebrain (4458) on Thursday March 26 2015, @06:06PM (#162874)

    I would point out that as a result of unlocked doors well over two thousand people died on Sept. 11, 2001.

    In the last 14 years this is the first time I've heard someone claim the locked doors are a bad idea. In fact I've read many comments that advocated locked doors because they really prevent hijackings as opposed to confiscating nail clippers and water bottles.

    I'm interested in hearing the results of the investigation into the co-pilot that is currently underway.. Unless the co-pilot left a note somewhere we will never truly know why. But an well educated guess might be the next best thing.

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  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by The Archon V2.0 on Thursday March 26 2015, @06:20PM

    by The Archon V2.0 (3887) on Thursday March 26 2015, @06:20PM (#162887)

    And people don't wear seatbelts because they don't want to be tangled if the car gets submerged.

    And people don't wear steel-toed boots because if a specific thing hits it a specific way the damage will be worse.

    And people don't vaccinate their kids because of fears of autism.

    Find a safety measure and you'll find someone who will cite either a rumor, or a hypothetical, or one freak corner-case as a counterexample while ignoring all the people who *didn't* die.

  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by bart9h on Thursday March 26 2015, @08:19PM

    by bart9h (767) on Thursday March 26 2015, @08:19PM (#162939)

    So you think 9/11 was caused by unlocked doors. Interesting....

    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by sjames on Thursday March 26 2015, @10:47PM

      by sjames (2882) on Thursday March 26 2015, @10:47PM (#163002) Journal

      Well, let's see. The whole plan was to enter the cockpit and fly the planes into buildings. It seems pretty clear that had they been locked out of the cockpit, they would have failed miserably, so yeah.

      That's not to say there weren't other things that could have stopped the events from happening, but securely locked doors are the cheapest and most sure countermeasure with little downside compared to the other ways.