There are several possibilities that come to mind when considering the insanity of such a decision; either it is shareholder pressure to keep costs down, or merely a CAA/LBA/DGAC etc inter-departmental turf war. In the case of the former, it’s certainly high time the bean counters took a seat in economy class and realized that the flying public is not likely to return to the skies in profitable numbers until such measures are fully implemented, in the case of the latter, not many surprises there I am sorry to say.
A rapid decompression in the cockpit is an extremely rare event. Should the relevant authority insist on measures to mitigate the possibility of pilot incapacitation due to same, the solution surely lies in more stringent rules regarding the use of supplemental oxygen in the cruise phase of flight. An airliner with unconscious pilots is certainly a dire circumstance. We have witnessed, however, the infinitely more destructive consequences of an airliner with suicidal terrorists in control.
Until the threat of being bombed, poisoned and otherwise terrorized back into the Stone Age is completely and mercifully extirpated, there exists a very clear and present danger. I visited Ground Zero yesterday to pay my sorrowful respects; I would rue the day that Buckingham Palace, Frankfurt Terminal One or any number of nuclear powerplant installations resembled that God-forsaken tragedy, and merely as a shockingly incompetent result of obtuse and shamefully short-sighted bureaucratic dithering. The Aces, Ace, appear to be missing from a few decks around here.
In the starkest of terms, the cockpit has been taken from us in a number of ways. Perhaps it’s high time we took it back.