the France jet pilot was locked out of cockpit

[meridannight]

Lubitz had spent 18 months overall under psychiatric treatment, Bild reported on Friday, citing anonymous sources within Lufthansa, Germanwings’ parent company. The pilot was diagnosed with a "severe depressive episode" in 2009, the German daily says. It claims it got access to Lubitz’s profile, indicating the pilot had “psychological problems” and required a "special, exemplary regular medical examination."

"Documents with medical contents were confiscated that point towards an existing illness and corresponding treatment by doctors," said the prosecutors' office in Dusseldorf, where the pilot lived and where the flight from Barcelona was heading, reports Reuters.

"The fact there are sick notes saying he was unable to work, among other things, that were found torn up, which were recent and even from the day of the crime, support the assumption based on the preliminary examination that the deceased hid his illness from his employer and his professional colleagues," they said.

Reuters

Telegraph

unfortunately in Germany pilots do not have to disclose their medical problems to the airliner (something i know is mandatory in at least some countries in the EU) and that Lufthansa doesn't even regularly do psych eval on their pilots.

this was a surprise to me. i come from a background where pilots underwent regular psych eval, not just when they applied for their job and flight school. (by 'regular', i don't even mean a monthly time frame. but after a certain period, usually a year, the pilot would be screened and he could also be randomly screened outside that capacity).

not trying to blame Germany or Lufthansa. but i do hope they will implement stricter standards in this regard from now on. after all, this has been the case with some other countries (incl. US, from what i hear) for a long time now.


pilots cannot be given the freedom to keep their medical records private from their employer. aviation professionals know to distinguish between what is a serious enough problem to revoke the license and what isn't. they wouldn't ground any pilot unnecessarily. so there's no reason for such secrecy allowed, really.

[ceez]

This reminds me of a girl I went to high school with. A suicidal man got drunk one night and decided to kill himself by driving into another car head-on, they managed to find the suicide note on him. She was killed along with her siblings and both parents.

[ShiftyNJ]

by the way, i was thinking, why not expand the cockpit area to include private lavatory for the pilots? design the whole thing as a 100% self-contained area (i.e. with toilet, food, water, etc) so that the pilots do not have to leave the cockpit at any point during the flight, unless it is absolutely required for safety.

though i do not think it is possible to make flights 100% safe. that's just not gonna happen. and scenarios like this are impossible to prepare for anyway.

Sadly, economics. The weight and square footage of an additional lav inside the flight deck, not producing any revenue, would not be considered acceptable. The flight deck on airliners has shrunk so much over time, largely for this reason It is also what cabin crew only get "jump seats" in what would otherwise be aisle space, and crew rest areas are in cavities above the passengers' heads.

[ShiftyNJ]

Now an ex-girlfriend, and co-worker, is claiming she knew he had emotional problems and he once locked her in a bathroom. QUESTION: If your employment involved the safety of thousands of people and you were aware that a co-worker was a serious risk but was able to conceal it, would you a.) tell your employer, even at the risk of retribution or b.) Wait til he flew a planeful of people into a mountain and then go spill it all to the papers.

SMH.

[meridannight]

Now an ex-girlfriend, and co-worker, is claiming she knew he had emotional problems and he once locked her in a bathroom.

right now, all kinds of people who knew Lubitz are claiming various things. either they don't believe he could have done it, or they say they knew he was depressed. they all had an emotional attachment to him, or less so, but still knew him enough to associate him with certain expectations and it doesn't count much here anymore. (completely sane guys can lock their girlfriends into the bathroom too, out of joke, for example). they were emotionally involved with him and they can't see the situation clearly. i'm not giving credit to anything they're saying.

what counts is this:

Prosecutors said Friday that among the items found at Mr. Lubitz’s home were several doctors’ notes stating that he was too ill to work, including on the day of the crash; one of the notes had been torn up.

NY Times

the unemotional judgment of a qualified professional. that has credit.

QUESTION: If your employment involved the safety of thousands of people and you were aware that a co-worker was a serious risk but was able to conceal it, would you a.) tell your employer, even at the risk of retribution or b.) Wait til he flew a planeful of people into a mountain and then go spill it all to the papers.

in case of pilots, yes, you are required to inform your employer. this is mandatory with at least some airliners. but of course, it is always at the discretion of the individual himself to open his mouth or not. but it's only when you actually have a good reason to think something like that. that usually entails presence of long-term signs that the pilot is not acting quite right. panicking at the slightest thing is not useful to anybody either. normal individuals can flip out sometimes and not be a danger to anybody at the same time. we have to keep in mind not to blow this thing out of proportion.

and Lubitz appeared normal to everyone, it seems. so, in this case, it's kind of useless. it is possible to conceal it. psych problems don't always mean that you come across as an obvious madman. so an ill pilot can appear normal and a sane pilot can appear unstable. in the end, a qualified professional is required to make that distinction.

the weak link in this particular situation wasn't the fact that other people saw him unstable (they didn't). the weak link was that somehow Lufhansa's medical/psych team missed his illness. and that they did not do regular psych eval on their pilots. a pilot can be completely healthy when he joins an airliner, and develop an illness afterward. it is nonsensical NOT to do regular psych eval. the reports say he joined Lufthansa in sept 2013. if they'd had yearly psych evaluations instated, in september-october 2014 he would have had to have been screened again, and they may have caught it that time. (although, this is still a speculation).

[Darius]

This is not about suicide. He could have done that alone in his bedroom. This is about mass murder. Depressed, suicidal people don't plot how to kill others. This is just pure evil.

[trywait]

This is not about suicide. He could have done that alone in his bedroom. This is about mass murder. Depressed, suicidal people don't plot how to kill others. This is just pure evil.

in other words: crazy!

[Dreamer]

I think I'll walk from now on, if I need to travel.

Overseas? I'll just drink some jesus juice to walk on water.

[East]

The combination of someone who is suicidal who also has an acute case of permanent self pity...it is a potentially lethal combination. Most people miss this..I am not even sure pyschiatry recognizes the potential damage someone with self pity can do to others.

I am not talking about temporary garden variety self pity that everyone experiences...I am referring to chronic self pity...

Like most disease and impairment...chances are good that nothing monumental will happen...but if someone is suicidal AND suffers from an acute case of chronic self pity...they can be scary as fuck....and not just a danger to themselves...

The people with chronic self pity blame everyone else for their problems....and so taking "everyone else" with them is not really a problem...more a solution. I have been saying this since the school shooting sprees began....I think I am right. I think this is a similar case.