Passenger Plane Crashes in French Alps.

Summary from the recent press-conference of the Düsseldorf:
- the prosecution doesn't comment on any of the numerous speculations,
- there are still no announcements or similar details found which could give a reason for a suicide,
- the first officer had no known organic illness,
- no reasons were found in his personal, family and job (social) circles which could give a hint for a suicide,
- before he got his pilot licence, he had been in psychotherapeutic therapy over a longer period due to possible suicidality,
- during the last (periods of) doctor's visits, no suicidality or aggression had been noticed and/or diagnosed.

he was also reported to have recently suffered a detached retina

So if a flight crew member has a mental health issue and reports it, they will probably take them off flying forever . If they decide to hide it, Airlines and Doctors of Aeronautical Medicine admit it is very difficult to find mental health issues without the co-operation of the patient .

Having two at all times in the cockpit is not a solution . Lets say the suicider is strong and the other is weak . The result is the same . Obviously we dont know who the suicider is until the attempt is made, so the second person may well be the suicider and the new law has just insisted they go into the cockpit area . A plane can be crashed by anyone who can push the column forward .

The two at a time rule will make passengers feel safer, something that the crash has damaged . Whilst it was only Islamists who were crashing planes the public still had faith in the pilot but this has gone a long way to destroying that trust .

A few random thoughts:
We had a nickname for when aircraft flew into a mountain, usually because of clouds or white out, and it was "things that go bump in the white". From a crash investigators point of view, we called that type "aluminium confetti" . These were just our local nicknames but you can see they are apt . Attending a crash scene can be depressing in itself, esp for the photographer who must document everything . High impact crashes result in many parts, very few bodies . High altitude breakup results in bodies surprisingly in one piece, but without clothes on if they fell out of the wreckage . The wind strength, toppling and the time falling, rip off clothes . Most of us have smelt aviation kerosene, which comes in different types that have different freezing and ignition points . Accidents smell like kerosene for a length of time depending on the weather .

Flight Recorders are required to withstand:
- an impact producing a 3,400-g deceleration for 6.5 milliseconds (equivalent to an impact velocity of 270 knots and a deceleration or crushing distance of 45 cm)
- a penetration force produced by a 227 kilograms (500 pounds) weight which is dropped from a height of 3 metres (10 feet)
- a static crush force of 22.25 kN (5,000 pounds) applied continuously for 5 minutes
- a fire of 1,100 degrees Celsius for 60 minutes.
An acceleration of 1 g equates to a rate of change in velocity of approximately 19 knots per hour for each second that elapses. Without training and special suits, eg passengers, about 5 g will make you black out . Aerobatic pilots who are used to g have recorded 14 g for half a second and survived . The record is 25 g for 1 sec on a jet sled. Those same aerobatic aircraft are generally rated for 15 g but are usually operated under 10 g . The black box is rated approximately 34 g for 1/2 sec . The Germanwings aircraft was doing approx 375 knots .

That is all that can be compared, because the impact would produce angles and other unknowns which would change the stopping distance . Suffice to say humans are dead long before the black box is and these boxes had considerable damage, probably approaching their upper limit .

Ah, so.

To me, that is the trigger for his immediate action on a matter he was already - apparently - thinking about over a long time.

By various newspapers. According to the prosecution ... see my above post, but now in verbatim translation "the seized medical documents show no organic disease".

Jet fuel is said to burn at 1000c, but looking at this wreckage I suspect that this fire burned hotter due to the rock formations concentrating heat. With that plus the recorder not being made to be driven full speed into a mountain I doubt they will get any data out of what ever they eventually find.

Slate is reporting that the recorders protective csse was found, but not the recorder. Not good.

In the last year it has become clear to me that airplanes need to be designed to sent contant real time data to the ground, both location and operational metrics of the craft, and probably cockpit voice as well.

That was already said Wednesday last week, by President Hollande, at Merkels visit. Media published photos of case ...

Super?

How does this effect my opinion that they are not likely to get data?

I have no idea. All I know is that are trying to find the recorder by physical searching, but that the deaths have priority.

The wreck is confined to a small area, and as they look at each square foot of rock they are looking equally hard for the recorder remains and what ever bits of bodies are there.

What exactly is your damage? Are you still pissed that I was right that taking down the nuclear plants was a stupid idea? Prices are skyrocketing, which is going to throw a wrench into the manufacturing economy. Not good when all of Europe is looking for you Germans to support them.

now there may be something messed up with a translation along the way but ..

a detached retina would not normally be considered 'an organic disease'

_____

interestingly (?) a lot of the reports here use the phrase 'uncredited German media sources' when they say where they are getting their information. i.e. German reporters have information they're not able to publish so they're passing it on to reporters elsewhere who can publish

You are not advocating we go back to pre-9/11 rules, then...

Tabloids and yellow press (others still follow the press codex) are publishing already so many rumours .... what the ex-friend of a second cousin who wen to school with someone who had met him on the train and such ... that it really is surprising that something hasn't been published here.

But foreign journalists aren't better at all: more than twenty tried to get information from the girl friend of this person


And many foreign journalist offered money and more to pupils of the Joseph-König-Gymnasium in Haltern for photos from the private memorial service and/or private photos with the dead pupils and teachers.

I am advocating for a complete revamp of pilot training and supervision programs, as well as an end to the effort to drive down their wages. Airlines need to adjust to not having many ex military pilots, which meansa lot of things, to include that pilots now start flying with very little experince. This killer had almost no experience.

According to the prosecution, who has seen the documents, this was not due to an organic failure but a psychosomatic illness.

Might well be that we have a different understanding of organic and psychological diseases here. (We use ICD-10 - H33 Retinal detachments and breaks)

Lufthansa never had many ex-military pilots - since a couple of years, they even don't accept them. (That's for all airlines of Lufthansa group)

We use the ICD as well. We have to be very careful when assessing the cause of retinal detachment.

Many are caused by injury, rather than disease. In the insurance world this can mean significantly different coverages.

Interesting that someone is suggesting a psychosomatic factor in retinal detachment. That's not indicated in any of the reference materials I've reviewed. High stress levels are very occasionally indicated.

Perhaps that's why he went more than once to university hospita's department for psychosomatic medicine and psychotherapy - I could imagine that one or even more of the previously consulted doctors suggested such.

Lufthansa's age restriction makes it clear they donet want to hire people with experience, from the military or anywhere else. They are unusual in this aspect, and it is not at all clear to me that this is a good idea, especially when they undergo periods of rapid expansion.

I dont think that the lufthansa plan to hire exclusively rookies that it trains impacts my argument that the industry practices on training and supervising pilots needs massive overhaul.