The recent Germanwings tragedy, in which one of the pilots apparently deliberately crashed an airliner, brings to light several other crashes thought to involve suicidal pilots. Brad Plumer at Vox writes a fascinating report:
In 1999, EgyptAir Flight 990 crashed near Nantucket, Massachusetts, killing 217 people. Before the crash, the plane’s pilot had apparently excused himself to go to the bathroom. The black box recorder then picked up unintelligible commotion and banging on the door. The co-pilot, Gamil El Batouty, could be heard muttering over and over, “I rely on God. I rely on God. I rely on God. I rely on God.” The captain eventually forced his back way in and could be heard saying, “What is this? Did you shut the engine[s]?” As the plane crashed, the captain was heard trying to right the plane, saying, “Pull with me. Pull with me.”
The Prozac Pilot opines this has nothing to do with depression:
The only thing I know about Lubitz is that he was an evil coward. This type of hideous behavior is not created by depression. This is something that sprouts from pure evil. I feel badly if a person wants to commit suicide. However, when a person takes their own life and commits mass murder at the same time, that is the ultimate act of selfishness.
I am not sure if we will ever understand what caused this person to do what he did. But I do know that he caused a great deal of pain to many people.
How about simple insanity? Back at Vox, Joseph Stromberg covers the current state of aviation safety. A good source in case you’re nervous about flying, but they supply a flawed chart:
SOURCE: Bureau of Aircraft Accidents Archives
Absolute numbers in a variable context. I’d rather see number of crashes per miles flown, or crashes per total flights, although some folks over Quora suggest that normalizing using miles flown is flawed. Given the expansion in air travel, normalizing the numbers to reflect expanding use of air travel should make the improvement in safety even more dramatic. Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association supplies data concerning accidents and fatalities per flight hour (100,000 hours) in a tabular format here, but not an immediately useful chart; the summary is that improvements, particularly in fatal accidents numbers, is definitely there. It’s not so clear in total accidents, but I’m not a statistician. Statistics Brain supplies some analysis for the geeks.
Finally, last August NewScientist (paywall) examined the future of pilotless aircraft.
At the heart of this revolution lies a simple fact: computers now do so much on planes that airline pilots rarely have cause to take the controls. Autoflight computers can take over when the plane is just 30 metres off the ground, maintaining whatever speed, heading and height the crew tap into the flight management system. And the computer has long been able to home in on a runway radio beacon and land the aircraft automatically.
I can only hope the FAA requires the airline makers to take a more serious approach to computer security than evidenced by today’s computer makers.
