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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: 3, Insightful) by TLA on Thursday March 26 2015, @09:41PM
The lesson here is that the technical solution to a non-problem (intrusion onto a flight deck, which has happened what, three times previously? Out of how many flights ever?) has actually been shown to work flawlessly, in that it has kept everybody without access to the locktrip (ie the cabin side of the flight deck hatch) out of the flight deck. EXACTLY AS DESIGNED. Only problem is, it's resulted in 150 people dying.
conclusion: Good idea, poor execution.
Excuse me, I think I need to reboot my horse. - NCommander
(Score: 3, Informative) by sjames on Thursday March 26 2015, @11:19PM
If the door had no lock, the co-pilot would have simply had to commit the plane to a crash while the pilot was in the lav. There are plenty of ways the person flying the plane can do that and it doesn't take long.
(Score: 2) by Nuke on Thursday March 26 2015, @11:47PM
The lesson here is that the technical solution to a non-problem (intrusion onto a flight deck, which has happened what, three times previously? Out of how many flights ever?)
LoL! You are way, way off-target there!
The highjacking of aircraft was a major problem back in the 1960-90 period when it became very fashionable. Typically a young left-wing "rebel" would enter the cabin with a gun (real or fake) and divert the flight to some communist destination, often Cuba. Monty Python even did a spoof of it. There were many other scenarios too.
Look at this lot:- List of hijackings [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 27 2015, @03:25AM
Typically [...] divert the flight to some communist destination, often Cuba
Your prejudices are strong but your memory is weak.
If you had looked at the list you linked, you would have noticed that few hijackings ended behind the Sugarcane Curtain|Iron Curtain|Bamboo Curtain.
-- gewg_
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 27 2015, @06:18AM
However the strict door locking was only introduced after 9/11.
(Score: 2) by Nuke on Friday March 27 2015, @10:10AM
However the strict door locking was only introduced after 9/11.
Indeed. The the list of hijackings in GP link above does not even include cockpit invasions by drunks and abusive passengers.
As someone else pointed out here, originally (like in the 1930's and 1950's) aircraft travel was considered to be something that only cultured gentlefolk would afford. The aircraft themselves were not the cattle trucks they are today, and the pilot was regarded as a respected friend - typically admired and assumed to have been a WW2 hero flier. The flight was like a social occasion, and passengers would be invited into the cockpit to admire the view.
People clung to this idyllic notion of aircraft flight long after the reality had gone. Some people still think of it as romantic even today. When UK trains went from spacious compartmented carriages to open saloons with the seats all facing the same way, in order to pack more people in, the marketing people declared it as "airline-style seating" because the idiotic public were supposed to think that was something desirable.
UK trains adopted locked drivers' cab doors in (AFAIR) the 1980's because of increasing problems with drunks. It had been needed with aircraft too for a long time, even without the risk of hijacking.