Suicide By Airliner

By Nadra Enzi —— Bio and Archives March 28, 2015

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In the lexicon of life taking now must be added the chilling phrase, "suicide by airliner."

The sad case of Germanwings pilot Andreas Lubitz shows yet again how an individual can use security protocols against those they're intended to protect. His emotional issues notwithstanding, Lubitz neutralized the threat posed by the pilot and others by sealing himself in the cockpit behind an armored door designed to thwart homicidal hijackers. While American airliners have a two person cockpit doctrine, this case prompts a shocked review of post-9/11 measures like cockpit doors which cannot be breached. Had this incident occurred in the past, pilot, crew and passengers may have been able to wrest this crazed co-pilot away from the controls. The doctrine of viewing passengers as potential threats falls on its face when peril comes from the flight crew. It's unlikely US air carriers and the TSA will abandon passenger-as-threat doctrine in the wake of this spectacular and frightening reversal. The flying public and Congress should seriously explore a subject post-9/11 air safety planners consider sacred: security theater aside, how closely are flight crew, airport, airline and contract employees being monitored. As the Andreas Lubitz case graphically illustrates, strip searched, randomly profiled passengers wouldn't have saved Germanwings Flight 9525. The US flying public are de facto inmates but this policy may have shifted the threat to the last place it needs to be: the cockpit.