Now that the cause of this tragedy is in the open and there were no technical issues, the time will come when it is a case of move on, folks - nothing to see here.
There may well be a lesson though, with reference to the normal practice of cadets from airline flying schools going straight into the right hand seat of jet transports following type rating courses. From the time these youngsters undertake their first flight simulator training in an Airbus or a Boeing, they are pounded on standard operating procedures and their training is primarily concerned with flying on automatic pilot. They have had no time to enjoy the thrill of real flying apart from the hard yards on the commercial pilot training courses.
What early enthusiasm and absolute love of flying they may have had in their first few dual instruction ab-initio flights, soon must wane as the competition increases for a future airline slot.
Assuming the cadet graduates with a CPL and no real aviation experience, he then finally passes a type rating course and is shoe-horned into an airliner.
From now on he hits the manuals every night. He might be unlucky enough to crew with an autocratic captain for his line training. We have all ben there-done that
All of his flying from now will be on automatic pilot and heads down into the button pushing with often constant criticism of his ability to absorb "instruction".
Is it any wonder some of these young people lose their enthusiasm and their initial love of flying since they first flew solo. It is not hard to see how disillusionment can set in when all they are now seeing is no more fun flying, but a future life of button pushing and SOP's. They learn these cursed SOP's as a defence against criticism rather than for a love of reading a technical manual.
Management who hire these cadets, must educate their captains to use old fashioned good manners and kindness when training these youngsters and avoid the carping and often destructive criticism that all pilots know can happen to the vulnerable. Cadet first officers should be encouraged to hand fly as much as possible where circumstances permit. Too often, captains forget that they once loved the thrill of actually flying an aeroplane, albeit years ago, rather than watch the automatic pilot do everything.
I wonder if the first officer that deliberately crashed his Germanwings A320 had been subjected during his Airbus training to a harsh training atmosphere where nothing he could do would please his instructors and check captains?
Investigators need to look into the personalities involved with this lad's training because rude and aggressive "instructing" can cause loss of confidence in one's flying ability. Heaven knows what demons then rise up when flight after flight is nothing but tension in the cockpit - be it simulator or the real thing. All of us have struck this problem during our flying career at one time or another. Some have the courage to kick back at the tormentors that occasionally occupy the left seat while others are helpless against it and need time to harden up.
All of this is not to say that the Germanwings first officer suffered unfortunate experiences during his training as an Airbus pilot. That will be left to the investigators to find out. But following this recent tragedy involving a new inexperienced cadet first officer, airline managements responsible for hiring cadet pilots should start to look more closely into their training personalities and training practices.
Young cadet pilots are far more vulnerable to the actions of irritable and impatient captains; much more so than experienced first officers - many of whom will have gained the confidence to tell the occasional autocratic screaming skull captains to show respect to the second in command and to back off or else.