This is so terribly sad.

Just because somebody mentioned the word 'evil' way back in the thread doesn't mean we have to keep referring to it.

A discussion should move on.

All the more reason, Penstemmon, why Gransnetters should move on.

'course there is. He was really angry over something. And I think he knew what he was doing. Bastard!

There is more to this than depression I think.

Anya I have not suggested that people cannot have an opinion just asking that people think a bit before making judgemental and ill informed sweeping statements.

I accept the man's actions caused the tragedy. Ihave huge sympathy for the dead and bereaved. But I am proposing that the pilot may not have been evil but hideously ill. It appears that some people are not able to conceive the concept of being in control of actions at one level but not being able to fully appreciate the consequences because ones sense of reality is so messed up. That is being ill not being evil.

grumppa sadly the press/media have linked depression and the tragedy in a simplistic and soap opera drama manner and some readers seem to lap it up and spit it out without any reflection!

That's comforting.

MIND has pointed out that there are pilots who suffer from depression who have been flying safely for years and who continue to do so.

If someone is so ill with depression that they have no sense of reality should they actually be at work ?

Nobody is suggesting that all depressives should be treated as likely to do what the co-pilot did. The problem is how to diagnose efficiently pilots and others (remember the Moorgate tube disaster?) whose mental condition, whether depression or something else, may put others at risk. And then how to make planes safe both from terrorists and problematic crew members.

Maybe this thread should move on from discussing depression.

Calm down Penstemmon

Other people are entitled to voice their opinion too.

My understanding of the situation is that the next time I get on a plane I don't want a seriously depressed person who has no sense of reality flying it.

I don't mind you shouting and swearing at me BTW....Water off a duck's back!

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/mar/28/i-suffer-from-depression-depressive-andreas-lubitz-mental-health?CMP=fb_gu

God merlotgran you have so little understanding..or don't want to understand. Sometimes when you are fucking ill with a depression that takes away your sense of reality YOU DO NOT KNOW THE ENORMITY OF YOUR ACTIONS even when you know, logically what you are doing. Maybe you are not able to understand that.

Yes. Wonderfully brave and dignified but would he have said that if the plane had crashed due to poor maintenance?

This is the wonderfully brave, dignified and considered statement by Philip Bramley whose son, Paul, died in the crash. He said that If there was a "motive or reason" for the crash, "we do not want to hear it - it's irrelevant".

While we're casting around for historic parallels, let's remember that Churchill also suffered from depression - his black dog.

The reported reaction of other pilots via merlotgran is the understandable view of other professionals in the same line of business. On the basis of the present disclosures, the co-pilot shouldn't have been let out in charge of a bicycle, but who could have known that?

Too sick to realise the enormity of his actions?

Oh purleeeeze!

He planned to do something catastrophic. He KNEW what he was doing.

I have had a little experience of people ill with depression. Rather like cancer there are many different types and different severities. Some depressions grow slowly, others are quick, sudden and aggressive. Some sufferers are able to maintain a level of rational thought, others are not and behave totally out of character from their 'well' selves. Some will recover fully and go on to live useful and purposeful lives, some depression sufferers may not.

For those on here who are so quick to judge the co-pilot who may have been too sick to realise the enormity of his actions I would say you are lucky not to have someone you love and care about suffering from crippling depression.

I am saddened by the horrific loss of life and the dreadful damage to so many families who have lost their beloved relatives and friends.

However I will reserve my opinion about the co-pilot being too ill to be considered 'evil', until there is more information (facts, not homespun theories!). It does seem beyond doubt his actions were directly responsible for this tragedy.

I think you can't compare a psychopathic co pilot with a man who killed millions and over a period of 6 years, not counting the deaths of people who died after he himslef was dead.

It must be impossible for the bereaved relatives to come to terms with this tragedy. the pilot was ill, his behavior was not normal and I think now he can be called a murderer. It was murder.

OK. I'll go for normal.

merlot how about "normal"? (their views)

They were thought, and did, is different, rq.

As regards Hitler, I would have thought there was no way he could have done all he did over such a long time, if he was too ill.

I dont know enough about the other people you quoted.

Maybe I should have said understandable and not valid.

Before anybody shoots me down.

I've been speaking to members of my family who, apart from one, are now retired from flying. I'm afraid there's no pussy footing around within the industry.

Deranged nutter and fruitcake to mention but a few things I've heard.

And that's from people whose lives may have depended on the person sitting next to them so I think their views are pretty valid.

When people on this thread(me for one) have called him a 'mass murderer' others have leapt to the view that we should feel more compassion because he suffered from depression.

Well, so did Hitler and so did Stalin, Bonaparte and others - much has been written about the fact they were thought to have suffered from manic depression.
Does that excuse what they did?

Good post, POGS

I agree with you POGS. This man reminds me more of the sort of man that goes into a school and shoots the pupils, except he has used a plane instead of a gun. I can understand why so many people are upset at the way his state of mind has been described as 'depressed' and I feel theremuch more to it than that. I'm trying not to think of how many people this has affected . I think a lot more will come to light when they examine his computer. This has been so calculated; he even seemed to know which part of the mountain he wanted to aim for.