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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...
(Score: 4, Informative) by Hartree on Thursday March 26 2015, @06:31PM
When a murder with suicide is reported, I often make the comment "He just did it in the wrong order".
It's a flip comment, meant to be dark humor, but it does have another side.
We do have social duties (perhaps defined only by ourselves). I consider one of them to be to do your best to prevent yourself from doing that. The best option is to get help of some kind before getting to that point. Obviously, many situations either preclude or discourage that. Mental illness not only damages rationality, but undermines the ability to judge if you are being rational. Admitting to problems damages or destroys careers and has huge stigma. (Full disclosure: I have a private pilots license I got in 1987, but I've taken an SSRI antidepressant for many years which until recently was an automatic disqualification on your flight medical. So, I have at least some insight into the cost of admitting a mental problem, though in my case that was minimal. It just meant I could only look at the pretty airplanes rather than fly them. ;) )
It's possible for anyone to be in that situation due to the vagaries of what depression, strokes and other medical conditions can do.
I can only speak for myself, but if at the end of the day, the only way that I could prevent myself from committing a murder followed by suicide was to end my own life first, I hope that I would still have the presence of mind to do that rather than carry out some horrible act. Suicide is a tragedy, but combining it with murder for whatever reason is an even worse one.
It's still early in the investigation. Though it is very suggestive, let's remember that this has not risen to the level of proof. Though it may appear to be a deliberate act, we can't know the mindset, or with the destruction of the body, the physical/medical state of the co-pilot. Strokes or other brain malfunctions can sometimes radically alter thinking without causing major physical impairment.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by frojack on Friday March 27 2015, @02:47AM
When a murder with suicide is reported, I often make the comment "He just did it in the wrong order".
There is some indication from news reports that he might have done it in the "right" order, suicide first, and dooming the rest to die later.
The Autopilot was, according to some news reports, re-programmed to maintain 100 feet instead of 38000 feet.
That gave him plenty of time to off himself, pills, gun, what ever. There may never be enough physical evidence to even analyse, because virtually every one on that plane went out in a cloud of pink mist. Nothing left except bone fragments.
Being in the front seat guaranteed him a couple milliseconds head start. Of course the is also the possibility that he may have wanted to prevent himself having any second thoughts, or seeing something scary.
The order of actual deaths is not all important in a mass execution situation like this.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by Yog-Yogguth on Sunday March 29 2015, @10:18PM
You and everyone else probably now know as has been widely reported (at least in Europe) that the voice recorder shows the murderer was conscious and breathing normally right up until impact.
At first my gut instinct was disbelief that a person would sit there so calmly and relaxed for the the relatively short time (minutes) it took until impact with all that was going on and knowing what the outcome would be. But after a day or so I realized I only wanted to lie to myself: such a thing is of course entirely possible and/or plausible.
He paid no attention to the captain trying to force himself back into the cabin (ax against armored door, not a chance but it would be at least a little bit noisy) or the emergency alarms (noisy or jarring I assume) or the air traffic control trying to get a response. Simply a cold-blooded murderer.
The good news is that lots of airline companies (in Europe) almost immediately after the general realization of what had happened changed their regulations to require two people in the cockpit at all times. So the next time some pilot needs to take a leak another crew member first has to get into the cockpit to take his/her place as a safeguard.
It might not have helped but it could have, and at least it would force an altercation inside the cockpit. It seems very likely there will be changes to regulations concerning psychological and medical examinations as well.
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(Score: 2) by frojack on Wednesday April 01 2015, @03:47AM
Breathing normally is all the cockpit voice recorder indicated. He never said a word.
You don't have to be conscious for that. The odds of breathing normally while watching the mountain fill your windscreen with the captain wielding an ax at the door seems pretty unlikely to me.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 1) by Yog-Yogguth on Wednesday April 01 2015, @05:08PM
I misunderstood you; I agree he never said a word and that he didn't need to be conscious to breathe.
For the final part of the crash he might simply have closed his eyes but even if he didn't I'll still disagree on that part: for all we know it's exactly what he wanted. My initial reaction was the same as yours but I changed my mind when I thought about all the weird things some humans do, i.e. the odds of someone breathing normally when they've decided to do what he seems to have done wouldn't be poor and might even be highly likely. It's messed up for sure.
Anyway: sorry if I've been nitpicking.
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