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Yahoo!In the 1950s, when I was a flight attendant, commercial passenger planes had three people in the cockpit able to fly the plane: the captain, copilot, and navigator. Even when the plane was on automatic pilot, the navigator monitored its position and altitude. Had a navigator been on board the tragic Germanwings flight, he could have let the captain in, and the two could have taken over the controls and subdued the copilot in time to prevent the horrible crash.
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Comments
Maybe, or the co-pilot may have killed him soon after the captain left the cockpit.
nativeson (anonymous profile)
March 28, 2015 at 4:20 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Back in the 1950's pilots flew low to the ground, looking out the window and sticking a wet-finger into the wind. No wonder they needed a full time navigator.
JarvisJarvis (anonymous profile)
March 28, 2015 at 10:01 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I think the overall point is safeguards need to be put in place.
Ken_Volok (anonymous profile)
March 28, 2015 at 2:49 p.m. (Suggest removal)
The guy's fiance broke up with him and they put him on SSRIs because he was depressed. When was the last time a mass killing happened where the person who committed it was not or had not been put on SSRIs or other similar psychiatric medications?
Look it up, these drugs often cause violent, vivid nightmares and daydreams among users.
As far as cockpits, they don't need navigators anymore because they have this new invention called a computer. A flight attendant is supposed to go into the cockpit whenever one of the pilots goes on break. European airliners are apparently a little more lax in this area. Hopefully this incident will bring to the attention of airliners the importance of having at least two people in the cockpit - this is only reason.
Airliners should hold themselves accountable for the safety of their passengers rather than relying on government regulation. Top-down safety regulations are a poor choice because it limits the ability of airliners to bring about new innovations in safety procedures that can make their airliner the safest one out there. They can develop a reputation around that, and if it is important to people then they can choose that airline.
loonpt (anonymous profile)
March 28, 2015 at 7:50 p.m. (Suggest removal)
drone airlines, no pilot, cockpit window seats.
spacey (anonymous profile)
March 30, 2015 at 11:25 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Hello, welcome aboard. My Name is HAL, and I will be your pilot. Rest comfortable and enjoy your flight.
Ken_Volok (anonymous profile)
March 31, 2015 at 12:44 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Actually, Spacey's right on this one. Future aircraft will have no cockpit, no captain and no accessible controls that anyone could tamper with. The human factor will be taken out of the equation.
Botany (anonymous profile)
March 31, 2015 at 6:10 a.m. (Suggest removal)