The crash of germanwings flight 4U 9525 has left Europe and the rest of the world heartbroken, especially since the revelation that co-pilot Andreas Lubitz appears to have crashed the flight deliberately. For me personally this tragedy feels and is very close to home, as I'm a spanish born, living in Germany and someone very dear to me took the very same flight just one day before the crash. Most likely it was the same plane, maybe even flown by Andreas Lubitz.
In the last few days we have learnt many things about the crash, among others the co-pilot had a known history of depression. This has raised the question, whether regular psychological tests for pilots should be mandatory. Personally I was shocked that this wasn't mandatory worldwide already and so far has only been implemented in some countries such as the US.
Being an advocate to end the stigma of mental illness and someone who has suffered from depression herself I can't help but feeling anger at this situation, because in many ways it means that again society has failed. There are many speculations about the reasons why Mr. Lubitz has done what he did, but one thing we know for fact: He was in no way fit to fly a plane full of people.
It is known that he had a sick note for the day of the crash and had been in treatment for an undiclosed illness. He had interrupted his initial training to be treated for depression and supposedly it was recommended that he should undergo regular psychological checks. Why hasn't this happened? How can it be that nobody saw what was going on? The answers to these questions are hard to find but we need to face the reality.
Mental illness is still a taboo because it bears a stigma. Here in Germany one of the first things that you are told when you start a therapy is not to inform your employer because it could lead to respercussions at work. In a situation where you are supposed to find help secrecy is again encouraged, which results in the patient leading a double life. One where you try to seek help and fight a disease and one where you pretend that everything is in order. This also leads involuntarily to the feeling that a mental illness is something to be ashamed of, which in turn leads to isolation in my own experience.
In Germany you can have up to a waiting time of 3 years to get a therapy spot through the standard health insurance. This means three years during which a mental illness goes untreated. If you make a therapy through standard health insurance there is a "record" of it, but you can choose to private therapist and pay yourself. Then there is no official record, which is said to have been done by the co-pilot. If he did that to hide his illness or simply because he didn't get a therapy spot we will never know.
Many mental health organizations have raised concerns that the present media coverage might increase the stigma and that many pilots fly safely despite having fought mental illness in the past. This is true but in my opinion this incident shows that we have to rethink the past regulations, since one deliberately caused confirmed crash is one too many.
There are many physical illnesses such as epilepsy which keep people from becoming a commercial pilot, why not setting similar standards for mental illnesses? It has been proven that around 50 % of the people who at one point in their life suffered from depression will suffer a relapse. After a second episode the likelyhood of a third episode happening is even higher.
Of course many people don't suffer a second episode and aren't suicidal but in a situation where hundreds of people's lives depend on one person there should be a zero tolerance. This may sound drastic but what many people forget is that stress is a common trigger for a mental illness and being responsible for so many lives certainly is a huge stress factor.
In this respect the regulations also failed Andreas Lubitz. Of course he has committed a terrible action but condemning him as a mass murderer is certainly the easy way of handling this. The fact is that he was a man with a known past of mental health problems and he was in treatment for an undisclosed illness. How could it be allowed that he was put in a stressful situation where he was responsible for so many lives? He was a sick man that should not have been in the pilot seat in the first place, even if this would have meant crushing his dream. Sometimes people have to be protected from their own, especially since a mental illness affects your view of the world and you don't see things clearly.
Personally I believe that someone with a known past of mental illness should be banned from flying commercial flights indefinetely and that pilots should have to undergo regular intense, psychological checks, so that it is impossible for them to hide an illness. Also when a patient is responsible for other people's lives due to their job e.g. pilots, bus drivers, doctors etc. and he or she suffers from any medical condition that could endanger other people, the employer should be informed without delay. This might have an effect on many people but as stated before in these cases a zero tolerance policy should be the rule.
he can do what was done that Friday morning in the climb segment of Germanwings 4u9525 . ATI is available tranquilizer gas stored in secret spot(s) and produced with the help of Carbonmonoxid from (by a320) left hand engine bleed air and exhaust hot air that is meant to feed the heatexchanger.Also a dead bolt can be remotely released and the damned door is shut and remains shut the rest of flight. Also intercom is in Mode S but can be cut as to cut both ends interrupting for the rest of the flight any comms between flightdeck and cabincrew .Unbelievable how idiotic and stuppid this feature was architectured in Boeing and Arbus by security avionics technicians frm Honeywell.They will expect Billionsworth of civillaw claims as soon as forensic authorities give me an A320 /B737 to disassemble the Gas preparation system,the Lock dead bolt,the flight control. Cyberhijackers from a Nation with extended Air Force capability (eg Ogaden) which eg includes night air refuelings, assumed control initiated the gasing in climb , starting on departure out of Barcelona Spain, Gas is effective and filling the fastest in climb,in climb somebody pushed his microphone and screemed "Emergency - Emergency ..." when asked immediately by ATC for details-no more answer he passed out on the gas ! The climb continued to the selected level FL380 - Marseille ATC realized , an Emerency is in progress up there aboard the Germanwings and not less than 2 Pairs of Mirage2000 were broken away from current NATO exercise to head for visual nspection FL380 of this Germanwings.Also an Eurifighter Typhoon Italian Air Force realized Emergency is in progress, he went to set his Transponder for a short while on Mode A 7700 .Military traffic is controlled on UHF , Civilians on VHF ,so they normally do not communicate with one - an - other.,.commands over digital data flows to Altitude give the feet and fully dividable by 16 .About 20 min filling gas in climb and level off by A/P FL380 , exactly at 09.30.54 somebody at the remote control station selected next desired Altitude 13008 feet and re-grabbed 13/100 sec later to notch it further down all the way to 96 feet ,sure enough 9 sec later the Mode C Altitude begins to go down. Down down doubled the rate as if engines were completely at zero thrust idling.I did the math on this glide path angle: Somebody also remotely toke lift out of these wings, by either gear down and/or deployment of slat/flaps/spoilers/speedbrakes
ReplyDeleteor a good effective combination of all this.Cabin pumped up to withstand outside pressure diff of FL380 and about FL085 inside,when bursting into a Rocky Hill/ridge in
the Savoyan alps,not only fuselage pulverizes , the Lungs in the breast/chest of people will burst inwarts too and blast their body into thousands of peaces(see Swissair 111 in Halifax,same there !)Nobody onboard care the proper adaption process in the descent downwarts ,Nobody outside the plane cared for that either.This cabin was hot.Hot cabin landings are prevented by squadswitch but , this will override too, to avoid ear troubles and personal injuries. Once an airplane has landed with a hot cabin, The ATC will give them delicate treatment onto a safe ramp and carefully the flightcrew follows instructions qas prepared by Airbus engineers .The Storm window cannot be opened either ,it would rip the hand of the flight crew way out in the Air on the ramp!.
Mirages were not late to do the visual inspection, but they had no way to un-interupt the uninterruptible A/P once Command is assumed by C yberjackers noone else can help anymore!
Have you actually read your own comment? Sorry but this is nothing but a meddled crazy conspiracy theory that wouldn't be any crazier if you said aliens kidnapped the real plane. It bears no logic whatsoever.
ReplyDeleteI have deleted your comment once because you also posted in another of my artcles which has nothing to do with this.
Secret gas hiding spots? Where are you proofs? What would be the motive behind this? If this was a terrorist attack why didn't anybody assume responsibility?
Have you even read my article?
I am not claiming to know the technicals details (As you do without facts!) what I am saying that a man with his medical history shouldn't have been granted his commmercial pilot licence, not only to protect other but also to protect him. He was a victim of a flawed system.
As to the story of his background being fabricated: What would the airline gain? A technical defect would have been "better" for them because as it is now they might face a lawsuit for involuntary man slaughter, which most likely will mean the end of Germanwings.
The sad reality is that he was a sick man and nobody wanted to see it and nobody helped him until he ended up doing something horrific. I can only assume you were acquainted with him and that it is therefore that you are so desperately trying to exonerate him.