Saturday, March 28, 2015

Lufthansa CEO's crassness


"Berlin: No security "in the world" could protect an airline from the kind of action taken by a co-pilot who French authorities say appears to have deliberately crashed a Germanwings plane, the head of its parent company said Thursday.
"Whatever safety provisions you have in a company, however high the standards, such an isolated case cannot be completely ruled out," Lufthansa chief executive Carsten Spohr told reporters.
"No system in the world can rule it out." "
AFP.
Carsten Spohr could not have made a more insensitive statement. It is understood that Andreas Lubitz, the co-pilot of the flight 4U 9525 of Germanwings, the budget airline of Lufthansa which crashed into the Alps, was suffering from severe depression. Air pilots are required to be tested for their physical and mental fitness. If a mental condition like severe depression cannot be identified, what are the tests for? Lufthansa cannot disown its abject negligence in exposing the lives of its passengers to such a grave risk as pilot's depression, schizophrenia, bi-polar syndrome and the like.
The CEO may have to be tested for psychopathic tendency in view of his inability to empathise. The CEO cannot be unaware that the American regulator requires the mandatory presence of atleast two crew members in the cockpit at any point of time. So systems are available to prevent the 9525-like accidents.