My previous post includes a reference to the low levels of depression that people working in metallurgy suffer from. I don't know whether this made you subconsciously miss-spell your profession or you do actually work in metal health!
I agree with Jolly Robin. A lot of people suffer from stress, and some are reduced to contemplate suicide, and a few want to 'take someone with them'. But the level of tunnel visión that this guy had to send 149 other innocent people to their deaths is a tiny statistic. Two awfull things coincided, and a lot of people died. How many other suicides would want to do that, and have the chance. Besides, quite a few would be suicides back off when they are on the brink. This guy ploughed ahead. I'm trying hard to regard depression as being a mitigating circumstance (wtf, it is!!) but there were schoolchildren on there, and it's nigh on imposible to find a mitigating circumstance big enough to cover up that many dead. RIP passengers and innocent crew
And as an aside, the Spanish press are reporting there is considerable unhappiness among French pilots about revealing the contents of a black box DURING an ongoing investigation. Do they think this guy will be put on trial? Maybe they could think of the victim's families who want to know what happened (or all the people who suspected a mechanical fault until the voice recorder came to light)
I agree with Jolly Robin. A lot of people suffer from stree, and some are reduced to contemplate suicide, and a few want to 'take someone with them'. But the level of tunnel visión that this guy had to send 149 other innocent people to their deaths is a tiny statistic. Two awfull things coincided, and a lot of people died. How many other suicides would want to do that, and have the chance. Besides, quite a few would be suicides back off when they are on the brink. This guy ploughed ahead. I'm trying hard to regard depression as being a mitigating circumstance (wtf, it is!!) but there were schoolchildren on there, and it's nigh on imposible to find a mitigating circumstance big enough to cover up that many dead. RIP passengers and innocent crew
The controls (or lack thereof) which failed to alert the airline in this case must come under some serious investigation. There must surely have been co-pilots which expressed concerns, after all it's not as if they fly with the same person each time.
However whilst most cheap airlines (so far) have an exemplary safety record, those cheap fares come with a flipside namely ill-paid barely-trained pilots (less than 1,000 hours in this case) and perhaps as many have feared, corner-cutting somewhere along the safety/maintenance line.
I agree with Jolly Robin. A lot of people suffer from stree, and some are reduced to contemplate suicide, and a few want to 'take someone with them'. But the level of tunnel visión that this guy had to send 149 other innocent people to their deaths is a tiny statistic. Two awfull things coincided, and a lot of people died. How many other suicides would want to do that, and have the chance. Besides, quite a few would be suicides back off when they are on the brink. This guy ploughed ahead. I'm trying hard to regard depression as being a mitigating circumstance (wtf, it is!!) but there were schoolchildren on there, and it's nigh on imposible to find a mitigating circumstance big enough to cover up that many dead. RIP passengers and innocent crew
The controls (or lack thereof) which failed to alert the airline in this case must come under some serious investigation. There must surely have been co-pilots which expressed concerns, after all it's not as if they fly with the same person each time.
However whilst most cheap airlines (so far) have an exemplary safety record, those cheap fares come with a flipside namely ill-paid barely-trained pilots (less than 1,000 hours in this case) and perhaps as many have feared, corner-cutting somewhere along the safety/maintenance line.
No. Low cost airlines are not staffed with "ill-paid, barely trained pilots". Pilots earn a good salary. And to quote "less than 1,000 hours in this case" is completely misleading. Where else can pilots gain hours than by flying? Are you saying that no airlines should employ pilots with less than a certain number of flying hours gained with a commercial license? If so, that would mean that no-one could ever get a job as a pilot!
There is no correlation between accidents and the "type" of airline, ie Low Cost Carrier versus traditional "full service" carrier. The biggest, measurable risk factor is *where* the flight takes place. In Africa, 6.83 jets are destroyed per million flights. In the CIS (former Soviet Union) it's 2.74. In Europe, it's 0.24.
Germanwings has an exemplary safety record. Before this week it had never had a major accident. And only once, five years ago, contaminated cabin air *nearly* caused an issue.
There is no evidence of any corner-cutting in safety or maintenance. If an airline was trimming costs by reducing maintenance, it would simply be blacklisted and not allowed to fly to, from or over Europe.
While all the evidence has not yet come to light, I am pretty confident that this crash was not caused by the pilots' salary; by their experience; by cost-cutting in maintenance or safety; or by the fact that the ticket prices are lower on this airline than on others.
I think it was important to reveal in this instance as concern about the safety of the plane would be an issue otherwise.
The problem with this tragedy is that it was probably pretty unavoidable. If you do something to stop depressed pilots flying, they will be more likely to hide their conditions and there might be more incidents. Fortunately it is rare. Even if there was another person in the cockpit, the opportunity for a pilot intent on downing a plane will always arise.
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.
Introduce fat stewardess' then, or intersex ones with a bit of muscle
@chizz senior pilots earn a reasonable salary but junior ones clearly do not yet typically have significant debts from flying school.
I have worked out I have spent nearly as much time in planes than this guy since he joined the airline.
Where did young pilots get experience before the advent of low cost airlines? Flying turboprops not Airbus A320s with 150 people onboard.
None of this is likely to contribute to the cause of the crash. Nor does it make one type of airline (ie low cost carrier v full service carrier) any more or less likely to have an accident.
Comments
I'm trying hard to regard depression as being a mitigating circumstance (wtf, it is!!) but there were schoolchildren on there, and it's nigh on imposible to find a mitigating circumstance big enough to cover up that many dead.
RIP passengers and innocent crew
However whilst most cheap airlines (so far) have an exemplary safety record, those cheap fares come with a flipside namely ill-paid barely-trained pilots (less than 1,000 hours in this case) and perhaps as many have feared, corner-cutting somewhere along the safety/maintenance line.
There is no correlation between accidents and the "type" of airline, ie Low Cost Carrier versus traditional "full service" carrier. The biggest, measurable risk factor is *where* the flight takes place. In Africa, 6.83 jets are destroyed per million flights. In the CIS (former Soviet Union) it's 2.74. In Europe, it's 0.24.
Germanwings has an exemplary safety record. Before this week it had never had a major accident. And only once, five years ago, contaminated cabin air *nearly* caused an issue.
There is no evidence of any corner-cutting in safety or maintenance. If an airline was trimming costs by reducing maintenance, it would simply be blacklisted and not allowed to fly to, from or over Europe.
While all the evidence has not yet come to light, I am pretty confident that this crash was not caused by the pilots' salary; by their experience; by cost-cutting in maintenance or safety; or by the fact that the ticket prices are lower on this airline than on others.
The problem with this tragedy is that it was probably pretty unavoidable. If you do something to stop depressed pilots flying, they will be more likely to hide their conditions and there might be more incidents. Fortunately it is rare. Even if there was another person in the cockpit, the opportunity for a pilot intent on downing a plane will always arise.
I have worked out I have spent nearly as much time in planes than this guy since he joined the airline.
Where did young pilots get experience before the advent of low cost airlines? Flying turboprops not Airbus A320s with 150 people onboard.
I can't believe the size of the crater the plane made.