John Farley:
I take your point about some risks being unacceptable but in my view it is just not possible mitigate this particular risk.
You say it is relatively easy to mitigate - how so? How would you prevent any pilot on short finals just stuffing the pole forward and so diving into the ground before the other pilot had any chance to react?
Just because you cannot eliminate
all of the risk doesn't mean you shouldn't try to mitigate for
some of the risk. It should be perfectly acceptable to implement measures to try to prevent an incident like this.
No - I do not portend to have all of the answers - or all of the solutions. We (the collective) quickly instituted a measure ("impenetrable" doors) in response to 9/11. It created opportunity that we (perhaps) did not foresee. Refining what we did in response to try to prevent what now appears to be more than a "one off" seems appropriate.
Put yourself on board. What would you have done in the Capt's position? Would
you have wished for CC on the Flt Deck? Have you really thought about that?