Two pilots and the same plane -- Airbus 320--US Air 1549 and Germanwings 9525

[mnhtnbb]

Remember Sully Sullenberger? Remember the story of the plane that he ditched successfully into
the Hudson River when it lost power after geese flew into both engines? All 155 passengers and crew survived. Well, guess what it was? Yes, an Airbus 320. The same plane that the German co-pilot appears to have deliberately flown into a mountain, killing all 150 aboard.

I've seen a lot of talk the last few days, speculation, that oh, they should have been flying Boeing. Or, gee, the plane shouldn't have
been so old. But the reality is slowly coming to light that the tragedy of this flight going down was no accident, but a deliberate
act of a pilot. How and why someone could be trusted with such a job and so callously cause the deaths of so many innocent people will surely be thoroughly investigated.

Why would someone do such a thing? It's hard enough to trust (US) airlines when so many of us have had experience where we know
the agents of the airline are lying to us about delays and cancellations of flights. But the pilots? We've always trusted the pilots.
After all, they do superhuman things, like landing planes in the middle of a river.

I am really glad I have no flights planned. I'm pretty fed up with the entire airline industry. But now? Jeeze.

[cwydro]

1. Yes,

and to my horror I've discovered there have been many more of these incidents than I was aware of...

[mnhtnbb]

4. I used to laugh about the Delta pilots who landed at the wrong airport.

Haha.

My husband and I were in Panama some years ago--long story--and flying back in a little plane
from the northwest part of the country to Panama City. I was sitting right behind the co-pilot.
I became aware that the pilot had fallen asleep. We were approaching Panama City and the co-pilot
clearly had a dilemma about whether to wake the pilot or make the approach/landing himself. I decided
to solve the problem and started VERY LOUDLY talking to my husband in the seat behind me. The pilot
woke up and landed the plane.

[brooklynite]

2. Two pilots, and the plane was irrelevant

One flight hit a bird. One flight was intentionally crashed. Could have happened with any other aircraft.

[mnhtnbb]

5. Yes, but didn't you see all the talk about the age/make of the plane?

[brooklynite]

7. Yes -- in the early period when the information about the copilot's actions weren't known

I ALSO saw discussions about how the age of the aircraft was middle-of-the-road compared to other airlines, the plane was maintained by Lufthansa, which has a great safety record, and the plan had just been inspected.

I fly 10-15 times a year, including international flights. Statistically speaking the risk is negligible. I've never been worried.

Last year there were 15 crashes out of 59 M scheduled flights, or 0.0000002%

[still_one]

3. The truth is that airplane accident on commercial airliners are rare, and what happened to this

flight are even more rare.

Who knows what kind of mental deterioration he was having, or what other motivating force. I suspect in the coming months we will find out

[mnhtnbb]

6. Yes, but the scary thing is that pilot screening did not pick up this guy's problems.

How many other pilots are out there who deliberately intend to--someday--fly
a plane into a mountain?

[GeorgeGist]

8. Thousands.

Feel better?

[still_one]

9. Human behavior is too variable.

[Sherman A1]

10. Precisely

and the deaths of all aboard are tragic. That one person may have used their position to take the lives of all on the aircraft is especially disturbing and what brought about that series of events leading to such a loss, is beyond my ability to understand. One can only offer their condolences to the families of all those involved in this terrible event.

[Baitball Blogger]

11. It was either terrorism or the result of a very depressed individual.

And what we should be asking, is why are so many young people, in their twenties, who haven't even started to face the pressures from raising a family, dealing with depression and anxiety?

[JI7]

13. if it was terrorism wouldn't they want others to know why they are doing what they did ?

but of course there is still terror and fear and probably more so when people don't know.

this is why there is so much fascination about that missing malaysian plane.

[JI7]

12. exactly, it's not the plane but the pilots. maybe they will require psychological examinations

regularly or something like that.

it will be interesting to see what comes out about this guy.