If pilot suicide is now being seen as a problem, irrespective of this accident, then I'm rather surprised that a pilot orientated forum hasn't spotted the obvious solution, ie a third pilot!

Such a requirement would remove the possibility of the flight deck ever being occupied by one person alone, would remove the need to remove cabin crew from the cabin, and of course offer further pilot employment opportunities. As it would be a regulatory requirement, then no carrier would have a financial advantage over others. Any regulator that did not conform would soon find its airlines barred from all airspace other than its own. Costs of course would rise, fares would no doubt follow, but death by pilot would hopefully cease to be a statistical concern...

No, it wouldn't make it harder to commit suicide, FAs usually do not have any idea what i'm doing anyway and can't do anything against it. But it would make it much harder for a minimally screened person after just a six week training course to crash a plane with only one pilot in the flightdeck to prevent it. And then there's the big elephant, or rather crash axe, in the flightdeck that either could use to get rid of the other.

Yes but they could open the door if they heard and saw the captain banging on it.

The names of the pilots have not been released, only the hours of the captain were released, in excess of 10K hours.

Allegedly this is due to privacy laws in Germany, but this is not sustainable in the current rumor situation.

By now Germanwings will have lifted the medical files, investigators will have talked to not just family and will know a lot more.

So the secrecy is not only the French side but also the German side.

With all the current labour issues in German aviation we can only hope this was an individual drama not something even more sinister in an industry where the individual has to often finance his own expensive education (contrary to medecine etc).

As an aside, the only medical details my employer need have on me is my Medical Expiry date.

Those who are supposed to enlighten us could be partly to blame - safety specialists, aviation designers/engineers, aircrew.... all with one aim - reduce operating costs, save money... call it what you want. The slogan 'safety first' is frankly a farce these days and too many incidents involving 'cost savings' is foremost in a lot of peoples minds.

I know the miles/per passenger is a lot lower for military (non combat areas) transport aircraft. But they far fewer passenger losses/incidents? Better maintenance, crews? Or simply, they don't need to make a profit.

I shall now don my flame retardant sleeping bag.

Maybe those Germanwings employees have a bit of decency?

I was on a LH flight not long ago, maybe last year. European short haul, I think it was an Embraer. They taxied and lined up with the cockpit door open. To my surprise they then started the takeoff also with the door open. A CC member then only got up to shut the door a few minutes into the climb. I did find it a bit strange that such an obvious thing could go unnoticed by so many different crew members (2+2). Made me wonder about the level of attention going on in that cockpit.

Maybe because the leakers are OK with leaking general key info to inform the public, but don't see it necessary to possibly compromise an investigation by leaking personal details about the pilots? How would the names of the pilots be useful to the public at this stage, except to fuel speculation? Just look what happened with MH370. Maybe some people have learnt a lesson.

Companies should invest much more on pilots and crews mental health. Just that. I am Clinical Psychologist that work in this area. I am raising awareness for this problem on students since LAM accident.
There are excellent crisis teams and researcher over europe that can and should be requested to give strategies to prevent and solve those problems.
After the third pilot solution, there will need a fourth and so on. Trust is gained when you address fundamental causes.

Airbus A320 crashed in Southern France
 

I was on the same squadron as Tsu Wei Ming who flew Silk Air 185 into the ground and I always thought he was a misfit. I wouldn't have recognised it as mental illness but he was definitely an odd ball.

soupisgoodfood - agree that we do not need to necessarily know the names...

but what did LH have to hide when 2 days ago we were only told the pilots hours and no mention of co-pilot or his hours ???? Now turns out he only has 600 hours..........

Not only the labour issues, but also their Stasi-like surveillance of pilots humble-minded disposition by a mechanism called ZUP. If a personal drama is to come true such general suppression has shown its absolute ineffectiveness. I see a lot of similar thinking towards ruling the world by law force around me and I keep telling that is is not working.

Quote from previous post in this thread

May I take this opportunity to remind ALL Posters that they are legally responsible for what is posted on this site and the Owner of the site WILL comply with subpoenas for Poster's details.

Now you will understand why the Moderators delete posts and remove others that just take up 'bandwidth'

Halfwayback
Moderator

French internet tv BFMTV en Direct: regarder la chaine info en live - BFMTV now stating that another French media is claiming that the pilot flying was the captain and the co pilot was outside the cockpit.

It s obviously hearsay.

KAFKY - I'm really interested interested as a Clinical Psychologist how you would on a practical level you would address issues of mental health within an airline? Do you have any experience of airline company culture? Can you enlighten us?

One of the problems of so much speculation here is that there are various scenarios that cannot be ruled out and it seems a lot of people then become convinced that one or other of the possibilities is reality, and then continue to try to find more and more reasons that it is what really happened - when in reality until there is evidence to rule out options that could not occur, then the possible scenarios remain just speculation no matter how well informed.

It is also of concern that there are journalists who are reading this forum, as well as pilots and pax, and that some journalists are using the speculation from this forum to present in news websites - I have seen one news website yesterday, that used one of the scenarios discussed earlier in this thread as if it was factual information. Please therefore think carefully, before posting, about the consequences of what you say here. Remember also that there may be others reading this forum who may not merely be interested bystanders but could have mal-intent, so information passed in postings could be used for malign purposes, even if there are other sources of similar detail.

so ? meaning ?

They will surface, no doubt, some "nice" BILD or other reporter will like get them from colleagues or elsewhere. Are the laws good ? ABSOLUTELY. I dislike a lot of the laws in Germany, this one is a good one.

Is it your or the publics business who the cockpit crew, the CC or the passengers are ? Absolutely not.

With allegations as serious as the ones being voiced by NYT and AFP, it would be highly irresponsible of the investigators not to rapidly address this exceptional allegation, not least in view of the perception of the public at large versus the flying crews and the consequences for the entire industry.

I beg to disagree with his Dudeness. The backgrounds of the crews has become even more important over the last 18 hours and the press should be allowed to do their work, even if they are deemed here to be an irresponsible bunch. They are also one of our mechanisms for an honest society

VanHorck i would agree if it is not addressed today then it adds fuel to the fire.
All they have to say is the NYT/AFP reports are false but will they..........