How will they screen for this. Quite often you will hear... but he seemed so happy, right after a suicide

They can screen for it with psychology? The same way the military or the FBI screens applicants for abnormal behavior or tendencies.

 

 

And why does it have to be alar ackbar?

 

It does not have to be, but recent events in the world (and especially aviation) make it an easy assumtion to make, well for me anyway, other folk may see the world differently.

What a horrifying experience for the captain trying desperately to get back in and all the pax who saw that. completely helpless. Just the same for family members to hear that.

 

 

They can screen for it with psychology? The same way the military or the FBI screens applicants for abnormal behavior or tendencies.

But people can change after a screen.

It is my personal opinion (and only just that), that this guy was going to off himself in this manner, on some flight, wherever the opportunity eventually presented itself. I also infer, though again it is pure speculation and opinion on my part, that after setting the descent into the autopilot that he self-medicated himself into unconsciousness so that he would not have to experience the event - hence the total quiet and unchanged breathing documented by the CVR - everything else about this tragedy is very likely to turn out to be pure circumstance  - in any event, it is a truly a horrific and utterly selfish act...

Not meant to be funny, but here is a solution: Build a toilet stall into the flight deck...possibly where the flight engineer used to sit. Yes it would require a slightly larger flight deck...

The most interesting part of the above story is whether the co-pilot knew the captain would step out of the flight deck.

 

If he didn't, then he would have been waiting on every flight for who knows how long for the perfect moment to do this. If that's true, then either he has the world's best poker face and hid whatever dark thoughts that obviously were going through his mind for weeks before this happened, or something happened suddenly and recently in his life.

 

Either that or Lufthansa has terrible job screeners.

 

Well...

 

 

Captain Clayton Osbon was locked out of the cockpit by First Officer Jason Dowd and was subdued by passengers after he started acting erratically and apparently suffered from a panic attack. The aircraft was then diverted to Amarillo, Texas. Osbon received medical treatment by Northwest Texas Healthcare System

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JetBlue_Airways_Flight_191

Not meant to be funny, but here is a solution: Build a toilet stall into the flight deck...possibly where the flight engineer used to sit. Yes it would require a slightly larger flight deck...

One can't increase safety to a 100%. With every new safety measure you will get a new danger spot. The lockable and solid cockpit doors were meant to prevent stupid people from entering the cockpit to do stupid things. Now the doors turn out to be a perfect accomplice for suicide by pilot.

It is my personal opinion (and only just that), that this guy was going to off himself in this manner, on some flight, wherever the opportunity eventually presented itself. I also infer, though again it is pure speculation and opinion on my part, that after setting the descent into the autopilot that he self-medicated himself into unconsciousness so that he would not have to experience the event - hence the total quiet and unchanged breathing documented by the CVR - everything else about this tragedy is very likely to turn out to be pure circumstance  - in any event, it is a truly a horrific and utterly selfish act...

I'm not even convinced yet it was pilot suicide. Officials assume it was pilot suicide only 2 days after the crash. Not even DFDR data has been analysed. For now I don't believe anything but that a plane just crashed with steady rate of decsent and without contact to ATC.

Aren't we jumping to conclusions too fast? Couldn't he have had a brain seizure?

 

Just a thought.

http://www.ctvnews.ca/business/new-cockpit-policy-for-air-canada-1.2298727

Airlines are already springing into action with policy changes.

This is a horrific incident regardless of the cause. While I respect that suicide and mental illness is a problem only comprehensible by the person experiencing it, there is absolutely NO excuse to kill other innocent people along with oneself. We have seen events like these in the past. I think the only true effective solution is to target the root causes of mental illness.

Aren't we jumping to conclusions too fast? Couldn't he have had a brain seizure?

Just a thought.

 

That would not explain the premature descent command on the MCP.

I hate speculation and I truly do wish to believe that it was a freak accident and that there was no malicious intent, but sadly the evidence they've released so far points towards a deliberate downing. Regardless, the focus should be on the families of those involved. Nothing will give solace to their terrible loss. 

 

 

That would not explain the premature descent command on the MCP.

 

Or the full lock-out mode on the door.

 

Scott

Aren't we jumping to conclusions too fast? Couldn't he have had a brain seizure?

 

Just a thought.

Probably not,but still something to be explored. Sometimes you can literally be on autopilot (no pun intended) and do your daily tasks while having a seizure. To me a suicide  pilot doesn't change the flightlevel via the ALT setting when he could just disconnect it and push into a dive. It does seem odd that it was practically a controlled decent mode

You can't safeguard for every situation. 

That would not explain the premature descent command on the MCP.

Maybe. Maybe not. Unconsciousness might not take place immediately. You might do stupid things halfway through without being aware of it. Even if it just takes seconds. Changing the altitude on the FCU of the Airbus only requires a little movement of the knob for example.

 

They say it was quiet in the cockpit. They say that the other pilot and members of the cabin crew were kicking on the door. They also say that passengers were silent. If the pilot and cabin crew members are kicking on the cockpit door and try to get in, passengers would start worrying for sure or even panicking at least in the first rows (which should be audible on the CVR recordings). Epecially these days. And why didn't they use the emergency code for unlocking the machnism?

 

Maybe the co-pilot was unconscious for some reason and didn't know what he was doing shortly before. I think it's too early for taking the current official statements too seriously. It didn't even happen 3 days ago and everybody behaves like now we all know all facts already. In fact we don't know anything. We haven't seen any data, any fact, any preliminary report. Nothing. And I refuse to declare a 28 year old aviation enthusiast guilty, who made his dream become true and knew what life is all about. My thoughts are with his family. Let them alone for now!

The emergency code entry can be prevented by flipping a switch in the cockpit. So our copilot would have to command the descent and flip the switch to lock out the captain in his fugue state.

And why didn't they use the emergency code for unlocking the machnism?

 

^^^ This  ^^^

 

EDIT:  I had the same answer as the previous post.