Change usually sucks. FTL’s (Zzzzzz), CDSS (ow, my back), the cockpit door itself (banging all night waking me up), etc. So what would suck least? First, the plane.
Pop up barriers would be an expensive nonsense. Not cost prohibitive, if little car parks have them, but they’d have to be everywhere. “Cos the next guy might use a taxiway....”
The cockpit door with access code issues mean that locking it on the ground would cause problems for everyone, with too many codes floating around too many people, and safety issues galore. As for Golf-Sierra’s worries above, if the crazy does get onto the flight deck during flight, would the crew just sit there while he gets out the little metal plate and fits it neatly over the FCS’s? We’re really not talking about inflight cockpit breaches of in-service airplanes but more about planes we’ve left lying around somewhere. Overnight, in a Mx area, on a cargo ramp, etc.
Hence the “throttle lock” idea. Or a lockable chock, like AOPA recommends. Not to be fitted every time a 747 rolls up to T5, just when it’s left over by Hatton Cross. Remember the guys who broke in (for fun) and filmed themselves in BA Jumbos? They had no intention of going flying but a bit of tin over the four little switches that let you go fly would have ensured that pictures is all they took. The lockable chock, maybe not, as jet engines at full thrust can be weapons themselves. Remember Asiana doing a full power blast on the ramp in ANC? They tore up two airplanes and blew stuff everywhere. And how big and heavy would that chock have to be? So protect the GO switches/levers.
As for the mental health component, I do feel very sorry for Rich. Taking a little non addictive pill every day and talking to someone might have been all he needed to put the smoking brakes on this. My life exploded some years ago and I trolled around like a dick for years. What changed? My really nice (airline pilot also) friend fessed up that he had hit a wall too. So he found a person to talk to and is back flying. If he could do it, I could too. And it was great. EAP/peer intervention avenues should be open and available. And the nice thing about talking to someone is that your poor spouse doesn’t have to listen to all your BS for years on end.
When it comes to aviation authorities trying to conduct psych evals on crews reporting for duty, like some have suggested, NOPE. I don’t like any of that. In these “cost conscious days,” it’ll just turn into another empire for people to work in once they’ve mastered the fries machine at their local McDonalds, digging into stuff that they neither have the training or experience to understand. Nor does this pertain to the case of planes left lying around. But I remember back when the small island I spend much time on had no crime. Except the odd stolen car, because people left the doors open and the keys in the ignition all the time because there was no crime. The bars would empty and people wanted rides home. But the locked cars without keys in them were neve r stolen. The ones with keys were found the next day.