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: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 26 2015, @09:16PM
It would only seem reasonable if they worked and the benefits outweighed the costs. Since this happens extremely, extremely rarely (assuming this was even intentional), that doesn't seem likely.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 27 2015, @06:18PM
Perhaps there is another reason the plane failed and someone is trying to cover it up? Maybe it was really a mechanical failure and the plane manufacturers don't want to look bad? Or the air traffic control accidentally messed something up but it's so much easier to blame dead pilots than it is to blame, say, air traffic controllers or the air traffic control system? Or the airlines did something wrong causing mechanical failure?
These days, with huge conflicting reports among differing nations (ie: one country saying a military aircraft suffered mechanical failure while another saying it was shot down, depending on what country is speaking and what kinda propaganda is being pushed) who would know the difference? It's not like mainstream journalists really dig that deep. For all we know the reason the plane crashed could be something completely different from the various reports. Those responsible for determining what gets reported to the public (ie: reporters, airliners, government officials, etc...) could say or fabricate anything, it's not beyond them to do so, and who would know the difference.