There there poor little darlings........overworked, underpaid, paying to fly too......................booo hooo!
I think you misunderstand entirely, Landflap. The point is not to excuse what has happened, or the person who did it, but to learn from it. How many more Lubitzes are out there? How many more Lubitzes is the industry creating? And if you don't ask these uncomfortable questions, how can you prevent this happening again?
As we have all been told so many times in CRM, the holes in the cheese all have to line up for an accident to take place. In other words, there was more than one hole in the cheese here.
So what are the other holes are there, in this cheese?
... Did the selection process play a part? Was this self-selection, or was Lubitz the best of the bunch?
... What about these do-gooders, who say we should not stigmatise mental health (like that letter by psychacrists). Did they pressurise Lufthansa to keep Lubitz?
... Doctors who cannot even advise authorities, if they think they have a mass murderer on their hands. If a patient confesses to the doc that he is about to kill someone, is the doc really duty-bound to keep quiet? If so, something is very wrong.
... Authorities who knee-jerked into locked doors - and in their ignorance genuinely thought we would never have to leave the flightdeck during a 4-hour flight. (a locked door that is opened ten times in a flight, is not a locked door)
... Authorities who allowed companies to hit every flight duty limitation in the book - simultaneously - and did nothing about it.
... Authorities who ordered pilots to stand outside and guard the aircraft, until every passenger had boarded and the doors were closed (do you remember that nonsense...!!)
... Authorities who allowed companies to stop serving crew food, and then allowed security to confiscate any food the crew brought themselves (do you remember that nonsense). (probably does not pertain to Germanwings)
How many other holes in this particular cheese, can readers think of? And why did nobody discuss and close those holes, before this incident? What are we paying the aviation authorities to do, bar drink coffee and have a chat about the latest soap opera?