This is so terribly sad.

I am being honest and I know it will upset some but here goes.

He had to go through physical procedures to lock the door to the cock- pit and reset the dials to 'down the plane' it was a calculated act knowing he was going to kill all on board men, women, children, babies and his fellow colleagues. He had to have the mental capacity and will to carry this through. That is what happened.

Now it has come to light that he has been predisposed to having mental health issues but I cannot for the life of me accept he had to do what he did to end his life in this way ,taking the lives of so many people and especially children with him.

Without going into detail I do have a personal understanding of suicide but I am speaking honestly here, I don't think I could ever get over the way this was done. His family would have suffered enough from guilt, because that's exactly how you feel, I cannot imagine what will be going through their heads every minute of the day for years to come.

I did say in a previous post I felt sorry for his family and I truly meant that, this is a tragedy all round , obviously, but with 150 dead I cannot help but focus on those 'hundreds' of family members who are mourning their dead. It's absolutely heart breaking to know this was not accidental, it was not an engineering fault but happened because of human nature.

I am sure there is an acceptance that the co - pilot was ill but that can be of little comfort to those dealing with the aftermath, it simply gives an answer as to why it happened.

You have to know what a huge impersonal organistion Lufthansa is. First most pilots have undergone a stringent, rigourous training. They are usually top of the class at school and had wealthy parents. They are not uaually the sort of empathetic, caring people you find in other professions.(Altough there must be exceptions) I think they just didn't notice their colleague being desperately unhappy or whatever his state of mind was. If a female colleague had noticed that the co pilot was a bit strange and reported it I don't think she would have been taken seriously.

That is what has to change. German Wings have striked three times this year because of the way that Lufhansa treats their personal.
I think he probably earned too much to be in the normal health insurance system and was what is known as a private patient. There are many consultants glad to see such patient, as often as he liked and no one would know. Its not like the NHS where you get moved around. A private patient in Germany can do exactly as he/ she wishes.

BTW, in Germany and in most of Europe- patients do not register with ONE GP, but can visit as many as they wish and in mayn areas- getting second, third and more opinions- so there is no ONE register of patients notes. This may have some advantages, but also means a patient can be taking drugs which interact with each other for instances- and also hide long-term conditions and those which can put others at risk, as in this case. Here where I live, it is very well known that some patients do the rounds until they hear what they want to hear, and get the treatment of drugs they want, be it anti-depressants, sleeping tablets or anti-biotics, or other treatments like CT or MRI scans, ex-rays, etc- which can work against the interests of the patient, and even dangerous!

As an aside, Luftansa, Swiss, Monarch, EasyJet and a few other airlines have already agreed to change protocol so a pilot will never be left alone in the cockpit- British Airways have not, as yet.

Do any of you have any ideas why detail of the co-pilot's medical (non psychiatric) condition have not been released? Why delay and fuel more and more guesswork and speculation. It could have been anything from a terminal illness, brain tumour, Diabetes, a form of epilepsy, aids even- why keep this info secret now? Is it due to pressure from unions? But his actions int he cockpit do not link with any of the above conditions- if he had had a petit mal attack or diabetic coma- he would not have locked the pilot out or pressed the button which threw the plane in its terrible and final, deathly descent?

I have been clicking on your link thatbags, but cannot find the link you are referring to.

are as

It seems there might be more to this than depression are there is talk of other psychiatric problems.

Had there been a system in place to notify the airline he has already been signed off work with a sick note, this might have been preventable.

I think he was too young to carry so much responsibility. Young men aren't always the most stable of people.

This poor woman and probably the parents will have to live with that for the rest of their lives. How many parents, wives and BF/GF do protect loved ones and even lie on their behalf in criminal investigations, etc. Out of fear of retaliation, pushing them over the edge, of out of 'misplaced' love.

bags - interesting speculation about whether terrorists are delusional or evil. No answer forthcoming here!

I think this is what I was thinking about - people being wise after the event and then feeling that they should have spoken up - very difficult.

It equates with child protection in many ways - over and over again the investigations into tragedies have shown that there were a number of individuals who had concerns, but it was only when they were collated with others' concerns that the true picture emerged.

If you know something worrying about a person and you don't report it is it not accessory before the act ? Even more worrying is that she is cabin crew ( I believe )

This is what the girl friend knew and raises the question: why didn't she tell someone how disturbed he was?

Reposting link to an article describing how the FAA evaluates pilots psychological health. I found it interesting.

More regular medicals mishap? Carried out by the employers and addressing both physical and mental health. Results straight back to the employers so that pilots can't avoid them and ignore their findings. Yes this pilot may have been able to mask his illness but another doctor had seen through him and signed him off, so it is not unreasonable to think a stringent medical might have assessed that he was unfit for work.

As for the 'two in a cockpit' suggestion, there are some fears this could raise the risk of a terrorist gaining access to the flight deck. It's not easy to resolve, and in trying to reduce one risk there is a possibility that we could raise another. As others have said, it is impossible to rule out all risks completely.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3014474/EasyJet-Virgin-Atlantic-making-planes-vulnerable-terror-attacks-knee-jerk-new-safety-measures-wake-Germanwings-tragedy-say-air-safety-experts.html

Agreed, nelliem and mishap. I started to write a post earlier about the differences between serious mental illness, delusion, and terrorism, but decided my thoughts were too ill-formed as yet. What I was wondering was whether people who turn to terrorism are suffering at the extreme end of delusional thinking and if that is a sign of illness rather than evil. Sounds wacky, huh? But 'witches' were burned for less when we understood very little.

I agree with Nellie about the use of the word evil. I have met just one or two people who it is hard not to use that adjective about; they were very different to those with a mental illness.

The two-in-a cockpit is a useful way to proceed quickly and is better than nothing, as the prevention route is very complicated and will need a lot of thinking through - how do you make sure that an airline knows all about a person's mental health? Do you rely on the pilot to tell you? Do you talk to their doctors, and might his deter pilots from going to their docs with a problem if it might jeopardise their job? Lots to work out and it will take a long time.

FGS Stop using the word "evil" in this truely dreadful situation! It is quite appalling!

To discuss whether or not someone with mental health issues is "evil" does nothing to help with regard to this disaster.

It is a disaster of someones making but to discuss in terms of "evils" just sounds to me like nasty ill informed gossip and reflects very badly on those still pursuing that line of thought.

This air crash in 2013 killed 288 and was caused by Pilot error. Shit happens

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2293750/Pilot-Air-France-plane-crashed-killing-228-people-slept-just-ONE-

I'm not very reassured by this 'two in a cockpit' idea. I don't think a slightly built female flight attendant would be much of a match for a suicidal/ homicidal pilot who knows how to operate the controls and fly the plane. The key is to stop such a person flying in the first place, and that's what went wrong in this case. It seems as if the medical checks and procedures were simply not rigorous enough.

He sounds as though he was more than depressed - the "delusion of grandeur" that he was going to make his name remembered has psychotic overtones; but it is very surprising that no-one clocked that he was that ill. There will now be those who in retrospect will have noticed some small thing that night have alerted them - very uncomfortable for them.

At least the two-people-in-a-cockpit rule seems to be spreading - that is a reasonable low-tech cost-free attempt to address the possibility of this arising again.

And calculating and manipulating his employers.

been unbalanced.

He was certainly depressed.
Whether he was evil too is debatable.
He seems to have unbalanced for a very long time.

It doesn't sound like a spur of the moment decision, it sounds planned.
I feel so sorry for people with clinical depression who think suicide is the only way out but not for him.
He was evil to do what he did, not just depressed.

That's what I have read too. I feel sorry for everyone involved in and because of this crash including, at the moment, the pilot. If it turns out he was a terrorist and not just some very sick dude, then I'll stop feeling sorry for him.