One again, how many more to follow?

[omae mona]

I have seen suggestions that airlines are considering putting a neutral 3rd person into cockpit, and although that will likely push airfares up, I'm all for it.

It may not push up airfares. They can just have a flight attendant step in anytime one of the pilots leaves the cockpit. If these doors are pretty much impossible to break down it doesn't make sense to have one person locked in there anyway. What if he or she has a heart attack? Sure autopilot would keep things going smoothly for awhile but it's not going to land the plane.

In the door design on the A320, this is already taken into account. The pilot is not locked out if the other pilot has a heart attack. See the video Russell posted. The pilots and flight attendants are supposed to know an emergency security code number to open the door. When they key it in to the keypad, an alert goes off in the cockpit. Anybody in the cockpit has 30 seconds to respond and click a "lock" button to prevent the person from entering. If the lock button is not clicked, the door will open. The reason for this feature is presumably so the guy in the cockpit can judge if a terrorist has forced flight crew to key in the override code. Unfortunately it also lets a crazy pilot lock out another pilot.

So presumably on this flight either:
1) Lubitz continued to push the "lock" button every time the pilot tried to key in the override code.
2) Or the pilot & all flight attendants forgot the override code.
3) Or the door mechanism was broken.

I feel #1 is most likely. I am sure Lubitz was prepared enough to know how to cancel the override. He probably would not have attempted to crash the plane that way, if he thought there was a way for the pilot to waltz back into the cockpit. In other words, remembering forgotten codes, or fixing a broken door, would not have helped even if #2 or #3 were the case.

[Mike Oxlong]

On the local television it wasn't a button, but a toggle switch (A320, IIRC). Unlock, Normal (where a security code would override the lock), and lock (where the security code would be useless). The toggle is walled both sides to prevent accidentally changing the setting.

Edit: image added

[Samurai_Jerk]

When the first driverless car runs over a jiji/baba/just plain idiot, I wonder how the J-courts will interpret the blame...

I wonder how courts everywhere will handle that.

It's probably easier outside Japan without the "because bigger" at fault mentality. Keep in mind how you can go to jail for running over an unavoidable suicidal idiot here.

How is it easier? If no one is driving their car, who's at fault? Do the manufacturers bear the responsibility? The software designers? The mechanic who last worked on it?

I mean specifically when the pedestrian is the obvious idiot 100% at fault...cause even in those cases, the driver is legally responsible/fucked in Japan whereas in other countries, reason tends to enter the picture. No driver to blame in this scenario...hence the reason I brought it up.

I understand that but you're still not making sense.

[Coligny]

Might be better in japan by opening the possibility of considering that moronic pedestrians can take some part of the blame too.

Easier to blame a defensless driver.

But when it's a software decision from car allowed to use the road with full log and event recording. The standard "must always remain in control of the vehicle" bullshit can finally die.

"The oyajis died because he was an entitled clueless oron: here is the event log as a proof"
Might make japanese civilisation collapse though. The sheeps were kept in line by believing they were in lalaland, all samourais for the glorious japan envied by all...

[Russell]

A lot can be said for reevaluating the system that was so deadly in this tragedy.

But in some cases it is just what one wants to do.

So, what's the alternative? There is a technological solution for allowing remote control from the ground, but airlines and pilots don't want any of that.

The only solution in my opinion is to include an option for remote control (from the ground) of the cockpit door when circumstances in the air necessitate it. This would allow overruling a crazy person in the cockpit, without giving complete control over the plane from the ground.

But anyway, whatever system is used, it will never be perfect.

[Russell]

BTW, you did understood that neutral and natural selection theories were not mutually exclusive ?

Takechan, as much as Coligny talks out of his ass some of the time, here he is perfectly right. In fact, the Neutral Theory of Kimura is an addition to Darwin's theory of natural selection. It explains how a species can evolve relatively quickly through sub-strands of its DNA that are non-functional in its current environment, but that become functional in a new environment. So, yeah, fully aware of Kimura's theory and hat off for it.

The only disproval for Darwin I can think of if the survival of the japanese race, only explainable by the isolation on their insane asylum island... So basically protected from any kind of possible evolution and instead becoming a testbed for inbreeding degeneration cases studies.

Did anybody tell you that Coligny sometimes talks out of his ass?!?

[Russell]

Germanwings co-pilot ‘wanted to make everyone remember him’

The co-pilot on the Germanwings flight that crashed in the French Alps wanted to do “do something” history would remember him by, according to reports.

Andreas Lubitz, 27, had hidden a sick note declaring him unfit to work on the day of the disaster before boarding the Dusseldorf-bound Airbus A320 and piloting it into a mountain in the southern French Alps, killing all 150 people on board.

According to the German newspaper Bild, a former girlfriend of Lubitz, identified only as Mary W, said he had told her last year: “One day I will do something that will change the whole system, and then all will know my name and remember it.”

She added: “I never knew what he meant, but now it makes sense.”

And the stewardess, 26, said the pilot, who took a break in his training due to reported “burnout-syndrome”, had suffered nightmares and his behaviour had scared her.

She told the paper: “At night, he woke up and screamed: ‘We’re going down!’, because he had nightmares. He knew how to hide from other people what was really going on inside.”

As legal experts warned that the airline’s parent company, Lufthansa, could face compensation claims for hundreds of millions of dollars, Düsseldorf prosecutors said they had found the torn-up doctor’s note covering the day of the disaster – Tuesday 24 March.

“Medical documents were found that indicate an ongoing illness and appropriate medical treatment,” the statement said. “The circumstance that torn-up current medical certificates – also pertaining to the day of the act – were found, supports, after preliminary examination, the assumption that the deceased hid his illness from his employer and his professional circles.”

No suicide note or claim of responsibility had been found, the prosecutors said.

Legal experts said that on the evidence that has emerged so far – which suggests the co-pilot may have had a history of depression and psychiatric problems – the airline would find it difficult to prove that the crash was not its fault.

“To avoid paying unlimited compensation, they have to show the crash was not due to negligence, omission or a wrongful act either by them or by their servants or agents,” said Clive Garner, the head of aviation law at Irwin Mitchell, which has represented passengers’ families in similar cases.

“We should be cautious, of course. But in reality, based on what we know at this point, they are not going to be able to establish that. Whether it was a deliberate act or negligence, they’re going to be liable for a large sum of money.”

Garner said the sums involved could be substantial. “It depends on the families’ circumstances – how much the passenger earned, how many dependants there are,” he said. “But seven-figure claims per family are by no means unusual.”

Germanwings said later that it had not been aware of Lubitz’s sicknote. “Germanwings would like to clarify that no medical note was presented to the firm for this day,” it said in a statement.

The investigation into the crash has turned to Lubitz’s background after the disclosure by French prosecutors on Thursday that he appeared to have deliberately downed the plane in a rocky ravine.

Investigators are looking for clues as to why Lubitz may have wanted to take his own life – and to kill 149 other people as he did so.

More

[Coligny]

The only disproval for Darwin I can think of if the survival of the japanese race, only explainable by the isolation on their insane asylum island... So basically protected from any kind of possible evolution and instead becoming a testbed for inbreeding degeneration cases studies.

Did anybody tell you that Coligny sometimes talks out of his ass?!?

Is called 'flatulism' or 'petomane' in French...

(Hates youz)

[Takechanpoo]

i didnt deny natural selection

mainstream of evolution can be explained by neutral theory. it was revealed by recent genome analysis.
and it pushed natural selection away. its no more than substream function in evolution history.

but unfortunately some guys dont wanna recognize it

[Russell]

i didnt deny natural selection

mainstream of evolution can be explained by neutral theory. it was revealed by recent genome analysis.
and it pushed natural selection away. its no more than substream function in evolution history.

but unfortunately some guys dont wanna recognize it

Here is where we disagree.

Natural selection is the driving force of evolution, and it is in no way contradictory to Neutral Theory. The latter just assumes some non-used DNA sub-strands (or should we say "junk DNA") to the DNA of species, so that that species can adapt quicker to a change in environment when that junk DNA suddenly becomes more relevant to that environment. This junk DNA acts as a kind of memory that records the selection pressures to which a species has been exposed in the past, and that may be reused in the future under the right circumstances.

[Russell]

Image can't be embedded because dimensions unknown. Anyway, it is kind of funny, in a black sort of way, so I give the URL.

http://img.koreatimes.co.kr/upload/news ... artoon.jpg

[Coligny]

image.jpg

Blame Russell, kthxbye...

[matsuki]

The only disproval for Darwin I can think of if the survival of the japanese race, only explainable by the isolation on their insane asylum island... So basically protected from any kind of possible evolution and instead becoming a testbed for inbreeding degeneration cases studies.

But Takechin is probably right about "junk DNA"

[Mike Oxlong]

Seems the Kraut was a copycat...

The 2013 Airplane Crash That Is Eerily Similar to the Germanwings Tragedy

[Mike Oxlong]

Andreas Lubitz and the Global Pilot Scam Threatening Your Safety
Airlines in Europe push young pilots to the edge in a desperate struggle to live with huge debts as they fly without
any job security. It’s enough to drive some mad, like the Germanwings flier who murdered 149 passengers.

Looming behind the actions of Andreas Lubitz, who deliberately flew himself and 149 others into a French mountainside a year ago this week, is an increasing body of evidence that something is seriously wrong with how young pilots are trained, recruited, and treated by many of Europe’s budget airlines.

Last week’s report by French investigators into the crash focused on Lubitz’s record of psychiatric problems and the failure of his family, colleagues, and the airline, Germanwings, to detect what some of his doctors already knew: He should not have been flying and, indeed, should have been hospitalized.

But the report gave brief attention to work pressures that probably contributed to his increasingly desperate state of mind—pressures that are felt by thousands of pilots as a result of how a number of airlines now treat them as a cost to be ruthlessly controlled and exploited rather than an indispensable asset central to the safety of flying.

It is now clear that, in addition to Lubitz’s medical problems, nobody detected or caught the part played by what the French investigators called the “socio-economic” pressures on his deeply troubled state of mind.

The investigators point out in their conclusions: “One of the explanations lays in the financial consequences he would have faced in the case of loss of license. His limited Loss of License insurance could not cover his loss of income resulting from unfitness to fly.”

And the European Cockpit Association, representing 38,000 European pilots, applauded the French report for recognizing the link between “employees’ socio-economic risks” and aviation safety and said that it needed to be “more in the focus of the aviation industry and European institutions.”

Indeed, in Europe nearly half of the pilots between the ages of 20 and 30 are flying without the security of being directly employed by an airline. Thousands of young pilots like Lubtiz often face a long chain of debt and financial stress...

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2 ... afety.html

[Russell]

Andreas Lubitz and the Global Pilot Scam Threatening Your Safety
Airlines in Europe push young pilots to the edge in a desperate struggle to live with huge debts as they fly without
any job security. It’s enough to drive some mad, like the Germanwings flier who murdered 149 passengers.

Looming behind the actions of Andreas Lubitz, who deliberately flew himself and 149 others into a French mountainside a year ago this week, is an increasing body of evidence that something is seriously wrong with how young pilots are trained, recruited, and treated by many of Europe’s budget airlines.

Last week’s report by French investigators into the crash focused on Lubitz’s record of psychiatric problems and the failure of his family, colleagues, and the airline, Germanwings, to detect what some of his doctors already knew: He should not have been flying and, indeed, should have been hospitalized.

But the report gave brief attention to work pressures that probably contributed to his increasingly desperate state of mind—pressures that are felt by thousands of pilots as a result of how a number of airlines now treat them as a cost to be ruthlessly controlled and exploited rather than an indispensable asset central to the safety of flying.

It is now clear that, in addition to Lubitz’s medical problems, nobody detected or caught the part played by what the French investigators called the “socio-economic” pressures on his deeply troubled state of mind.

The investigators point out in their conclusions: “One of the explanations lays in the financial consequences he would have faced in the case of loss of license. His limited Loss of License insurance could not cover his loss of income resulting from unfitness to fly.”

And the European Cockpit Association, representing 38,000 European pilots, applauded the French report for recognizing the link between “employees’ socio-economic risks” and aviation safety and said that it needed to be “more in the focus of the aviation industry and European institutions.”

Indeed, in Europe nearly half of the pilots between the ages of 20 and 30 are flying without the security of being directly employed by an airline. Thousands of young pilots like Lubtiz often face a long chain of debt and financial stress...

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2 ... afety.html

Good article, except they should have figured out that Ghent is not in the Netherlands.