SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
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: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 26 2015, @09:07PM
Aw, cut the bullshit. It is here because it is a popular story with salacious details and we can all gossip and speculate on it. It is no different than a bus driver or train conductor intentionally crashing their vehicles. So quit trying to justify it with BS sociology statements.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 26 2015, @11:49PM
LamX is pulling jon katz.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Phoenix666 on Friday March 27 2015, @10:02AM
Submitter here. Is it that you find all sociology bullshit? Or is it that you find the notion of skilled, technical people and their ability to kill lots of people on a whim unworthy of discussion? Because I was trained as a sociologist and have worked in technology nearly my entire career and I thought that this incident, and what it says about, and does to, the powerful web of social trust/contract, was an interesting aspect to think about; and I thought maybe other Soylentils would, too.
It might be evident that I was not going for salacious because I did not present it as, "OMG there are terrorists everywhere, EVERYWHERE!!! We're all gonna DIEEEE..."
Right?
Washington DC delenda est.