Good mate of mine had his flight cancelled back from the Caribbean a few years ago as the pilot had committed suicide in his hotel room a few hours beforehand.
You do wonder what psychological analysis and regularity goes into plane, train, bus drivers.
Still feel there is more to this. This seems a bit too calculated and callous for someone who had obviously shown no previous suicidal signals
You've got to feel for his parents as well. Not only do they lose a precios son, but they now face the fact that he is, at the least, being implicated as responsable for all the other innocent victims. How do you recover from that?
I am wondering if it is possible that the pilot has been hypnotised in someway to carry out this act. With no known mental issues or connection to a cause and 2-3 planes crashing for no apparent reason i.e. No distress signals is all suspect. I don't want to trivialise this into a whodunit episode but it's all strange and coincidental that there was any hint of alarm as the plane descended. Wouldnt someone have tried to use their mobile if there was panic? A real waste of life and my heart goes out to all the friends and relatives that are having to deal with this emotional hell.
Good mate of mine had his flight cancelled back from the Caribbean a few years ago as the pilot had committed suicide in his hotel room a few hours beforehand.
You do wonder what psychological analysis and regularity goes into plane, train, bus drivers.
Still feel there is more to this. This seems a bit too calculated and callous for someone who had obviously shown no previous suicidal signals
BUT: It's reported that he had suffered from depression .. I wonder how many cases of 'suicide by pilot' have been proved or have been strongly suspected as such and have been kept quiet .. the French authorities may be owed a big thank you here for publicising the facts in this case so quickly
Shows what I know - in my post yesterday, I would never have seriously countenanced a deliberate act.
This could well be a game-changer on aviation security. 3 pilots are the norm on long-haul flights, but that may now have to change on short-haul where 2 is usual. Airlines will resist, passenger confidence will plummet in the short-term, fares will rise due to additional crew costs and reduction in passenger yield etc, etc...
Toilets in cockpits might be logistically difficult/expensive. Cheapest alternative might be compulsory air marshals guarding cockpit if pilot has to leave, though that then raises other issues. Whichever way it goes, it will be interesting to see what comes of this tragedy.
easyJet have announced that, from tomorrow, they will change procedures to ensure there will always be two pilots on the flight deck.
Two people, not pilots. Cabin crew will stand in for aircrew when one needs to take a loo break.
Where a pilot has crashed the plane deliberately, there is an Egypt Air flight, Malaysian last year and now this one, personally I'd prefer the plane to be flown by computer with a minimal human oversight. The Germanwings plane's computer should not have been saying 'Terrain pull up' it should have taken action itself. A driver will accept cars with adaptive cruise control slowing themselves down rather than crashing or parking themselves why not a plane?
Where a pilot has crashed the plane deliberately, there is an Egypt Air flight, Malaysian last year and now this one, personally I'd prefer the plane to be flown by computer with a minimal human oversight. The Germanwings plane's computer should not have been saying 'Terrain pull up' it should have taken action itself. A driver will accept cars with adaptive cruise control slowing themselves down rather than crashing or parking themselves why not a plane?
Tragic as this is, you are mentioning 3 flights in tens of millions. We still need to keep an element of perspective on the liklehood of it happening again.
Where a pilot has crashed the plane deliberately, there is an Egypt Air flight, Malaysian last year and now this one, personally I'd prefer the plane to be flown by computer with a minimal human oversight. The Germanwings plane's computer should not have been saying 'Terrain pull up' it should have taken action itself. A driver will accept cars with adaptive cruise control slowing themselves down rather than crashing or parking themselves why not a plane?
Shows what I know - in my post yesterday, I would never have seriously countenanced a deliberate act.
This could well be a game-changer on aviation security. 3 pilots are the norm on long-haul flights, but that may now have to change on short-haul where 2 is usual. Airlines will resist, passenger confidence will plummet in the short-term, fares will rise due to additional crew costs and reduction in passenger yield etc, etc...
Toilets in cockpits might be logistically difficult/expensive. Cheapest alternative might be compulsory air marshals guarding cockpit if pilot has to leave, though that then raises other issues. Whichever way it goes, it will be interesting to see what comes of this tragedy.
easyJet have announced that, from tomorrow, they will change procedures to ensure there will always be two pilots on the flight deck.
Two people, not pilots. Cabin crew will stand in for aircrew when one needs to take a loo break.
OK...
"Two people, at least one of whom should be a pilot".
Difficult to see how say a 9 stone stewardess is supposed to stop a suicidal co-pilot who is only a couple of button presses away from say turning the engines off or sending the plane into a steep descent.
Difficult to see how say a 9 stone stewardess is supposed to stop a suicidal co-pilot who is only a couple of button presses away from say turning the engines off or sending the plane into a steep descent.
Difficult to see how say a 9 stone stewardess is supposed to stop a suicidal co-pilot who is only a couple of button presses away from say turning the engines off or sending the plane into a steep descent.
Surely it's more to do with the locking out
Again not exactly hard to render a stewardess incapacitated if suitably maniacal.
Where a pilot has crashed the plane deliberately, there is an Egypt Air flight, Malaysian last year and now this one, personally I'd prefer the plane to be flown by computer with a minimal human oversight. The Germanwings plane's computer should not have been saying 'Terrain pull up' it should have taken action itself. A driver will accept cars with adaptive cruise control slowing themselves down rather than crashing or parking themselves why not a plane?
Because the first time it went wrong everyone would go ballistic
Shocking story. I really wonder what we are not being told though, yesterday the passengers knew literally nothing until impact, yet today the pilot was trying to smash the door down with an axe. RIP to all involved, still a lot more to this than we are being told I think
Apparently he had been suffering with depression for years and had a 'serious episode' during his training.
Why the bloody hell did they let him fly?!?!?!? They should have kept him a mile away from any plane. They will get sued to shit after that revelation.
Sounds harsh - but if you have suffered from a mental episode as serious as this appears to be, sod the psychiatric tests. You are not allowed to fly.
Apparently he had been suffering with depression for years and had a 'serious episode' during his training.
Why the bloody hell did they let him fly?!?!?!? They should have kept him a mile away from any plane. They will get sued to shit after that revelation.
Sounds harsh - but if you have suffered from a mental episode as serious as this appears to be, sod the psychiatric tests. You are not allowed to fly.
I'm inclined to agree but due to the stressful lifestyle, responsibility etc., airline pilots reportedly suffer from higher rates of depression than the normal population.
It's important to retain some perspective when considering what we mean by saying that the pilot was depressed. Many people who are depressed are not suicidal, and the vast vast majority of people who are suicidal don't wish to take people with them when they go. It's almost impossible to mitigate against something like this happening, we live in an imperfect world, as long as there is air travel unfortunately there will always be a small number of tragedies such as this.
Apparently he had been suffering with depression for years and had a 'serious episode' during his training.
Why the bloody hell did they let him fly?!?!?!? They should have kept him a mile away from any plane. They will get sued to shit after that revelation.
Sounds harsh - but if you have suffered from a mental episode as serious as this appears to be, sod the psychiatric tests. You are not allowed to fly.
I'm inclined to agree but due to the stressful lifestyle, responsibility etc., airline pilots reportedly suffer from higher rates of depression than the normal population.
They do indeed NYA - but the primary reason for stress related illnesses amongst pilots isn't the level of responsibility, lifestyle and so on - it's the fact that to be an airline pilot you have to be very intelligent and very well educated to start with. Flying a modern airliner is, by all accounts, one of the most boring jobs imaginable, and it's this that is at the heart of the stress and anxiety issues.
Good mate of mine had his flight cancelled back from the Caribbean a few years ago as the pilot had committed suicide in his hotel room a few hours beforehand.
I find it really surprising that that sort of sensitive information would be divulged to passengers.
Apparently he had been suffering with depression for years and had a 'serious episode' during his training.
Why the bloody hell did they let him fly?!?!?!? They should have kept him a mile away from any plane. They will get sued to shit after that revelation.
Sounds harsh - but if you have suffered from a mental episode as serious as this appears to be, sod the psychiatric tests. You are not allowed to fly.
I'm inclined to agree but due to the stressful lifestyle, responsibility etc., airline pilots reportedly suffer from higher rates of depression than the normal population.
They do indeed NYA - but the primary reason for stress related illnesses amongst pilots isn't the level of responsibility, lifestyle and so on - it's the fact that to be an airline pilot you have to be very intelligent and very well educated to start with. Flying a modern airliner is, by all accounts, one of the most boring jobs imaginable, and it's this that is at the heart of the stress and anxiety issues.
I'd have thought it was more the fact that maintaining healthy family relationships must be difficult (if you're going long haul), you spend half your life in random hotel rooms, you're constantly fighting jet lag and weird sleep times and yet every working day you're meant to be 'on your game' and prepared for any unexpected eventuality.
And despite all of that, the pay is frankly quite shocking at junior 'cadet' levels with considerable debts accumulated from flying school.
It's important to retain some perspective when considering what we mean by saying that the pilot was depressed. Many people who are depressed are not suicidal, and the vast vast majority of people who are suicidal don't wish to take people with them when they go. It's almost impossible to mitigate against something like this happening, we live in an imperfect world, as long as there is air travel unfortunately there will always be a small number of tragedies such as this.
BBC are quoting a 'serious depressive episode' which doesn't sound like a case of depression that should result in him being in the cockpit. By all accounts he was receiving treatment still at the time of the accident. One source (Mail) saying Germanwings have said he shouldn't have been flying and 'slipped through the net'.
It's important to retain some perspective when considering what we mean by saying that the pilot was depressed. Many people who are depressed are not suicidal, and the vast vast majority of people who are suicidal don't wish to take people with them when they go. It's almost impossible to mitigate against something like this happening, we live in an imperfect world, as long as there is air travel unfortunately there will always be a small number of tragedies such as this.
BBC are quoting a 'serious depressive episode' which doesn't sound like a case of depression that should result in him being in the cockpit. By all accounts he was receiving treatment still at the time of the accident. One source (Mail) saying Germanwings have said he shouldn't have been flying and 'slipped through the net'.
If that's true, they're going to get hit with crippling compensation claims.
Apparently he had been suffering with depression for years and had a 'serious episode' during his training.
Why the bloody hell did they let him fly?!?!?!? They should have kept him a mile away from any plane. They will get sued to shit after that revelation.
Sounds harsh - but if you have suffered from a mental episode as serious as this appears to be, sod the psychiatric tests. You are not allowed to fly.
I'm inclined to agree but due to the stressful lifestyle, responsibility etc., airline pilots reportedly suffer from higher rates of depression than the normal population.
They do indeed NYA - but the primary reason for stress related illnesses amongst pilots isn't the level of responsibility, lifestyle and so on - it's the fact that to be an airline pilot you have to be very intelligent and very well educated to start with. Flying a modern airliner is, by all accounts, one of the most boring jobs imaginable, and it's this that is at the heart of the stress and anxiety issues.
I have always believed that airline pilots are among the most likely candidates to suffer from depression. But I have not really known *where* I got that information from. So I did a bit of research. It appears that I was very wrong!
Air Travel ranks behind only "recreation services", "highway construction", "coal mining" and "metallurgy" as having the LOWEST level of depression across 55 industries. (At the op of the list are "public transit", "real estate", "social work" and "manufacturing").
So I did a bit more research, this time on suicides, by profession. "Airline pilot" isn't the top profession for suicide (it's "marine engineers"). It's not in the top five ("physicians", "dentists", "vets" and "finance workers"). It's not even in the list of the top nineteen professions.
So, a lot of the stuff we often "believe" to be "facts", turns out to be nothing of the sort. It seems that, if you take a flight, the people sitting in economy are more likely to suffer from depression - and the people sitting in first class are more likely to be suicidal - than the guy in the hat, sitting at the pointy-end of the plane, with the big windscreen.
I work in the Mental Health arena and people do literally slip through the net. As with physical illness a mental one comes in hundreds of manifestations. I have read the risk assessments of clients in total horror only to find them when interviewed face to face to be pleasantly normal (quick look back at RA to double check...). Medication plays a big part but TBH some people just have an innate ability to hide their inner demons from the outside world. Now if this fella had had any outward signs leading up to that flight of any mental trauma, he would of been carted off very quickly, I hope. Absolute tragedy.
Comments
You do wonder what psychological analysis and regularity goes into plane, train, bus drivers.
Still feel there is more to this. This seems a bit too calculated and callous for someone who had obviously shown no previous suicidal signals
A real waste of life and my heart goes out to all the friends and relatives that are having to deal with this emotional hell.
BUT: It's reported that he had suffered from depression .. I wonder how many cases of 'suicide by pilot' have been proved or have been strongly suspected as such and have been kept quiet .. the French authorities may be owed a big thank you here for publicising the facts in this case so quickly
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/03/11/just-how-common-are-pilot-suicides/
"Two people, at least one of whom should be a pilot".
;-)
If a pilot wants to find a way to crash a plane (for whatever reason), chances are he/she will get away with it.
Why the bloody hell did they let him fly?!?!?!? They should have kept him a mile away from any plane. They will get sued to shit after that revelation.
Sounds harsh - but if you have suffered from a mental episode as serious as this appears to be, sod the psychiatric tests. You are not allowed to fly.
And despite all of that, the pay is frankly quite shocking at junior 'cadet' levels with considerable debts accumulated from flying school.
Air Travel ranks behind only "recreation services", "highway construction", "coal mining" and "metallurgy" as having the LOWEST level of depression across 55 industries. (At the op of the list are "public transit", "real estate", "social work" and "manufacturing").
So I did a bit more research, this time on suicides, by profession. "Airline pilot" isn't the top profession for suicide (it's "marine engineers"). It's not in the top five ("physicians", "dentists", "vets" and "finance workers"). It's not even in the list of the top nineteen professions.
So, a lot of the stuff we often "believe" to be "facts", turns out to be nothing of the sort. It seems that, if you take a flight, the people sitting in economy are more likely to suffer from depression - and the people sitting in first class are more likely to be suicidal - than the guy in the hat, sitting at the pointy-end of the plane, with the big windscreen.
Are they part of the BA alliance or the Virgin one?