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Why the Final Moments Inside a Cockpit Are Heard But Not Seen
jones_supa writes: There's no video footage from inside the cockpit of the Germanwings flight that left 150 people dead — nor is such footage recorded from any other commercial airline crash in recent years. Unlike many other vehicles operating with heightened safety concerns, airline cockpits don't come with video surveillance. The reason, in part, is that airline pilots and their unions have argued vigorously against what they see as an invasion of privacy that would not improve aviation safety. The long debate on whether airplane cockpits in the U.S. should be equipped with cameras dates back at least 15 years, when the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) first pushed regulators to require video monitoring following what the agency called "several accidents involving a lack of information regarding crewmember actions and the flight deck environment." The latest NTSB recommendation for a cockpit image system (PDF) came in January 2015. Should video streams captured inside the plane become a standard part of aviation safety measures?
@"it might have been even enough to deter him from doing it"
... The fact is, at the point they are about to kill themselves, even the thought of their own death isn't enough to deter them! ... When someone has lost even the fear of their own death, there's really not much that’s going to stop them. If they are only going to kill themselves, you can try to talk them out of killing themselves, showing them there's reasons to keep on living and things really can get better for them in the future. But then most suicidal people are only a danger to themselves, and they need help and need to seek help and be made aware there are people in this world who can really help them.
Sorry, but you haven't understood at all how a suicidal person thinks (and they are not "wackos"). When someone has decided to kill themselves, they are not going to be deterred by the thought they could get in trouble
But there's another kind of suicidal person, the person who is angry at suffering harm from either the abuse or the ignorance of others. They are much harder to reason with. This kind of suicidal person is angry at other people and wants to punish them back (even indirectly by harming e.g. their businesses etc.. or even harm the wider society around them). (You see this for example with Spree Killers). If they want to kill themselves, but are also intent on harming or even killing others as well, then they are also showing great anger at others and so if you can't talk them out of it, they have to be physically stopped to save others, but there are even times that being stopped is what the suicidal person wants. Its what cops call, "Suicide by cop" or "death my cop".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S...
This is when the suicidal person wants the cops to kill them to end what they feel is their suffering. They need help but its hard to help someone so angry at others. This guy sounds very much like this angry at others latter kind but was determined not to let others stop him.
Aircraft have two blackboxes: the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) and the flight data recorder (FDR). The former records audio in the cockpit and the latter records data from various instruments and controls. In this case, they have found the CVR but not the FDR.
All I want is a secure system where it's easy to do anything I want. Is that too much to ask ~~ Randall Munroe
They're still opposed.
But they can be persuaded, for a few bucks.
You may not realize it, but pilots are in general some of the worst paid people given the responsibility - it's very possible the public transit bus driver earns more than the pilot!
In a regional airline, salaries are barely above minimum wage - $20,000/year is not unusual for someone "starting out" - after spending $50k+ on their own training (including the necessary hours to even get the right licenses - airlines don't pay for the ATPL). Even top end captain is rarely much above $60K, and most want to hop onto the heavies before that because you start at the very bottom again with the shit routes, shit times, and shit pay.
Oh yeah, you may also have to "commute" which can easily kill an entire day just flying standby from your home to where you're supposed to start your route. It's only the past few years that the FAA and other bodies have started including commuting time as part of the duty day calculation (notably because more than a few accidents have been caused by pilots basically only getting 1 hour of sleep the past 24). It's still unpaid, though, just like you don't get paid driving from your house to the office.
Once you have your 20 years, you probably have enough seniority to get 6 figure salaries ($130K or so) and left seat captain time as well as the ability to pick the nicer routes.
I can bet you the unions will use video cameras as a bargaining ticket to bring raises all around from "barely able to live" to at least livable.
And yes, more than a few people who earned big bucks have considered a career in flying - the basic rule is if you can cut back your standard of living significantly (you're basically going from a high pay to barely nothing), or have a spouse that earns enough to pay the bills for the first 5 years or so, it's potentially doable. But if you're going to miss the money or such, it's not worth it because pilots are really low-paid professionals.
It is quite relevant. For example, Europe could adopt the two-crewmember rule current in the USA. It's likely that even a flight attendant could have unlocked the door and let the pilot back in.