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: 5, Insightful) by vux984 on Thursday March 26 2015, @10:35PM
Once inside the cockpit, there's nothing much preventing a most likely stronger male pilot from incapacitating an unsuspecting female member of the cabin crew using the fire axe that's aboard all airliners.
In theory you are right. In practice you are dead wrong.
Just because a person is perfectly willing to lock the door, ignore the radio, and fly a plane into the side of a mountain killing everyone on board does not mean they are willing to take an axe and kill the flight attendent next to them with it.
Physically capable of it sure. But would he actually do it? Maybe. Maybe not. Often not. Surprisingly often not. People are funny that way.
I expect it would be more effective as a deterrent than you'd ever think possible.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Friday March 27 2015, @02:59AM
Right. Suicides may not want to kill someone fact to face.
But further, flight attendants now get hand to hand combat training in most countries. if that pilot gets out of his seat, the stewerd/ess becomes alert, and maybe unlocks the door. And besides, the steward/ess would be closer to the fire axe than the pilot.
I'm still betting this pilot suicide is likely the root cause of MH370, and I'm not alone in this thinking [telegraph.co.uk].
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by Yog-Yogguth on Sunday March 29 2015, @10:37PM
I feel a little bit bad posting this days later (it's not like I knew this beforehand either) and it's only meant as a tiny correction: the pilot does not get up to lock the door, the door lock is a small button to the lower right on the instrument panel between the pilots (it's likely in the same general area for other models of airplanes as well). Maybe there are other ways to lock the door as well, I don't know.
Bite harder Ouroboros, bite! tails.boum.org/ linux USB CD secure desktop IRC *crypt tor (not endorsements (XKeyScore))
(Score: 2) by subs on Friday March 27 2015, @01:12PM
They don't necessarily need to kill. A good knock on the head with a blunt object works just as well. And they don't even need to make them unconscious. It's trivial to set the airplane up on autopilot to crash (spin the altitude selector down to zero and hit the FLCH button, done in about 2 seconds - in fact, a "flight level change" descent appears to have been the exact descent they did here, constant speed, maximum rate of descent) and then hold the weaker flight attendant down.
At best it'll deter the most weaksauce would be psycho who acts on impulse. But the pre-meditated guy, not really.
(Score: 2) by vux984 on Friday March 27 2015, @06:23PM
They don't necessarily need to kill. A good knock on the head with a blunt object works just as well
You are missing the forest for the trees. The type of suicide who will lock a plane door and fly into a mountain isn't necessarily willing confront another human being with any sort of violence at all. The psychology is different.
At best it'll deter the most weaksauce would be psycho who acts on impulse. But the pre-meditated guy, not really.
He's a depressed suicide, not a terrorist bent on taking down a plane. The psychology is completely different. You are projecting some sort of psycho act where the pilot will do anything to bring the plane down. That's simply not an accurate characterization of how most suicides would think. Simply having someone in the room would head off the event entirely in the large majority of cases. Not because he'd be unable to carry out a plan, not because he'd be unable to kill or knock out his companion, but because simply having someone there will cause him not to commit to the plan in the first place.
Suicide attempts tend to follow a variety of patterns and the combination of a violent attack on an innocent bystander just to enable themselves to isolate themselves for the final act" isn't "a thing". If you drew a venn diagram of "pilots who would commit suicide by locking the cockpit and flying into a mountain" with "pilots who would attack the flight attendent" to find the group of pilots who would "attack the flight attendant and commit suicide by mountain" it would be a pretty small overlap. Sure it -could- happen; but simply having someone there will effectively eliminate the overwhelming majority of incidents. (And given the already low number of incidents it will be a truly freak occurrence.)
(Score: 2) by subs on Friday March 27 2015, @08:21PM
He's a depressed suicide, not a terrorist bent on taking down a plane.
How do you know? Do you have access to some preliminary investigation results that us others don't? If not, then you're simply speculating. In fact, I'm not certain I'd agree that anybody with enough empathy to not wanna do personal harm would commit suicide by taking 150 people with them. He heard their screams, the shouts, the banging on the cockpit door from the back, he knew damn well ahead of time he's killing them personally. I'd wager that if you're willing to endure that, you're pretty ready to whack somebody unsuspecting over the head with a fire extinguisher first. If you just wanna die by flying, rent a freakin' Cessna single and stuff it into the ground at 170kts - death guaranteed 100%.
Fact is, until the full report is out, we're all just speculating. The reason why this case gets under my skin is because I think it fuels a sense of paranoia and surveillance among airline employees, as has already happened between passengers since 9/11, where you get stupid cases of people being reported and planes diverted simply due to Orwellian "suspicious behavior" with no added benefit to security.
(Score: 2) by vux984 on Saturday March 28 2015, @08:43AM
How do you know?
I don't know. It doesn't matter to the argument one way or the other. ( But FWIW if he was a terrorist organization act they'd have claimed responsibility for it.)
In fact, I'm not certain I'd agree that anybody with enough empathy to not wanna do personal harm would commit suicide by taking 150 people with them. He heard their screams, the shouts, the banging on the cockpit door from the back, he knew damn well ahead of time he's killing them personally.
Its really completely different; nearly opposite extremes even. He is merely pointing the plane setting it on a crash course. From there it is his inaction to re-orient the plane that leads to the crash; and it is under his total control. The event becomes passive as he "lets it happen". Eventually the course passes the point of no return and he couldn't save them even if he wanted to any more. At the end it becomes a passive acceptance of the inevitable.
That is entirely removed from an act of violence taken directly against someone; where each blow is actively dealt and the result immediate. There exists a possibility they will fight back, that they will even successfully overpower you. The event is uncontrolled. It couldn't be more different.
If you just wanna die by flying, rent a freakin' Cessna single and stuff it into the ground at 170kts - death guaranteed 100%.
Sure. But its obviously not the case that he "just wanna die by flying". Suicides are never that simplistic.