Althouse: "The co-pilot thought to have deliberately crashed Germanwings Flight 9525 had been trawling the Internet for ways to commit suicide..."

April 2, 2015

"The co-pilot thought to have deliberately crashed Germanwings Flight 9525 had been trawling the Internet for ways to commit suicide..."

"... and had sought out information online about the safety mechanisms on cockpit doors, German prosecutors said Thursday."

20 comments:

traditionalguy said...: Germans seem very through at whatever they are doing.; 4/2/15, 1:54 PM
madAsHell said...: Why in the world would you need to research suicide? Furthermore, why would one need to research cockpit security?

It seems he was researching things he should have already know. So, I'm thinking this is bullshit.; 4/2/15, 2:16 PM
TomHynes said...: Offer $1 million to the family of any airline pilot who commits suicide without crashing an airplane. There are about 100k airline pilots, and about 12 suicides per 100k people worldwide, so this program will cost about $12 million a year. Even if it encourages another dozen to commit suicide, it is still worth it in both dollars and human lives saved.; 4/2/15, 2:17 PM
madAsHell said...: already known

I hate it when that happens....; 4/2/15, 2:18 PM
traditionalguy said...: Famous aphorism says we need the British to run the government, and the French to do the cooking, and the German's to be the military/police force.; 4/2/15, 2:34 PM
sparrow said...: I always heard it as heaven vs hell and the Germans are the bureaucrats in Heaven and police in Hell

English are the police in heaven, French the cooks Germans the bureaucrats

In Hell Germans are the police the English the cooks and the French the bureaucrats; 4/2/15, 2:42 PM
Bobby said...: The only conclusion I can draw is that the co-pilot, like Mark David Chapman or Herostratus, knew that this would grant him "immortality." I mean, tens (maybe hundreds?) of thousands of people commit suicide every year and are forgotten... But do something terrible like murdering John Lennon or burning down one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and you get to be remembered.

Actually, I believe that's the very definition of Herostratic Fame.; 4/2/15, 2:55 PM
CWJ said...: Bobby may have nailed it.; 4/2/15, 3:10 PM
William said...: I think this is a one off and in no way typical of pilots, Germans, or even depressed people. Still, now the idea is out there, so who knows. Every one who boards a plane for the next few years will have this event at the back of their mind.; 4/2/15, 3:26 PM
Anonymous said...: If German pilots are like German drivers,

They kep their machines in top condition, and when they get behind the wheel, they don't fight with the Frau or spiel mit die kinder. They hunker down and motor.; 4/2/15, 3:40 PM
Anonymous said...: traditionalguy said...
Famous aphorism says we need the British to run the government, and the French to do the cooking, and the German's to be the military/police force.

The larger joke is
EU Heaven:

Brits are the cops
French are the cooks
Germans are the mechanics
Italians are the Lovers
Swiss run the Government

In EU Hell:

Brits are the cooks
French are the mechanics
Germans are the Cops
Italians run the Government
Swiss are the Lovers; 4/2/15, 3:44 PM
Wince said...: Too bad we can't similarly get a look into Obama's computer (much less Hillary's) to explain what truly motivates them.; 4/2/15, 4:36 PM
Peter said...: "Mental health."
"Depression."

Yet no one speaks of "evil," or sociopathy." It's not as if there aren't plenty of ways to suicide without murdering 149 other people.

Sometimes the world just doesn't fit into the neat, rational boundaries of medicine. Is evil an illness?

Although if his intent was to murder as many as possible, why didn't he crash the plane so as to maximize deaths on the ground?; 4/2/15, 4:44 PM
Hunter said...: The version I always heard was the same as what DrillSgt posted, if you replace "Lovers" with "Entertainers"; 4/2/15, 6:23 PM
Bryan C said...: "also warned against changes to Germany’s strict medical privacy laws, saying such a move could prompt pilots to skip treatment altogether."

That's probably a better outcome. Someone who is severely depressed and suicidal, like this guy, would probably not have been able to function unmedicated in a high-pressure, high-skill job. Or at very least he would have said something disturbing to someone who cared more about his passengers than his privacy.

So most likely if he avoids treatment, he gets treatment anyway. Worst case, he kills himself some other way.; 4/2/15, 7:36 PM
JHapp said...: It would be hard to imagine something that has more man hours or more money spent on it making sure that it is safe. Yet all those high end engineers and scientist missed the boat again.; 4/2/15, 10:01 PM
Sammy Finkelman said...: He was rtesearching other possible ways to commit suicide, or, more likely, arguments pro and con.

He knew roughly how cockpit security was supposed to work, but he didn't know how the system could be "hacked" and not work as intended.

He needed to know if he could lock the pilot out of the cockpit.; 4/3/15, 9:15 AM
Sammy Finkelman said...: ....successfully.; 4/3/15, 9:17 AM
Laura said...: Why limit the focus to medical privacy laws?

Anyone who searches verboten subjects on the Internet could be a culprit. Anyone who reads forbidden websites . . .

China is ahead of the curve on this one.; 4/3/15, 10:49 AM
Scott said...: JHapp said...

It would be hard to imagine something that has more man hours or more money spent on it making sure that it is safe. Yet all those high end engineers and scientist missed the boat again.

Well, more accurately, the only way that you could prevent this kind of action from crashing the plane is to cut the human element totally out of the decision loop. Unfortunately, that increases your vulnerability to other problems be they mechanical or environmental (the other two causes of airplane crashes).

Having a trained and motivated to 'get the plane on the ground safely because otherwise we are all dead' pilot has saved more lives than this one took in some crisis situations (IE Captain Sullenberger losing both engines to a dual birdstrike over NYC http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/US_Airways_Flight_1549).

The fact is that no system is 100% foolproof for safety, and any change to prevent one thing happening (Don't let terrorists storm the cockpit ala 9/11) can open a weakness in another area (this is one time you WANT to have the cockpit stormed). The key is to manage risks, which is very very hard with a complex system.; 4/3/15, 1:45 PM