Today's groundless speculation thread - so why would a German copilot deliberately fly an airplane into a mountain?

sir82

Just can't wrap my head around this. The guy (a) evidently did all of this on purpose, and (b) evidently had no reason at all to do so.

There is a huge chunk of the puzzle missing from this one (so far).

He had a reason in his own mind at that set of moments, but there is no excuse for killing all aboard for any reason, go kill yourself on your own time, no need to be a prick and kill everyone around you too is there.

As there doesnt seem to be any islamic conversion angle so far then I reckon it was something stupid like he didnt get on with the pilot and there was some final straw that made him snap and all the way into the ground the pilot failed in some maddening sense to say or do the "right " thing to make him stop.

That is just a guess, although it is more odd that he didnt seem to say a word all the way down, which i think he would have done if he was angry at the pilot, so maybe scratch that idea and plumb for some kind of psychotic break.

I guess they will figure out a likely reason soon enough.

88JM

It's difficult to rationalize such a horrible action, but as we know from our JW days, people can rationalize very extreme things.

Finkelstein

When human psychology comes into evaluation, anything can be revealed.

I think as time moves on and the investigation continues more information will come forward.

Slidin Fast

There is no rationalising this. He wakes up as a respected man in an envied job, a few hours later he has become one of the world's most notorious mass murderers. Suicide is one thing, mindless, random destruction of life and so many families is quite another. There is no understanding this.

fulltimestudent

It's also difficult to believe that no-one knew about his state of mind. Although, it would seem, from thinking about the many mass-shootings (that occur in the USA), that family and close associates tend to overlook some of the signs of something wrong.

It also awakens suspicions about the fate of MH370.

But there are more (even one is too many):

*November 2013, Mozambique Airlines Flight TM470 crashed in Namibia, killing 33 people on board. Investigators initially couldn't figure out why the plane had crashed, since the weather was so nice.
But as the International Business Times reported, the plane's black box recorder offered some disturbing clues. The co-pilot had left the cockpit for the bathroom only to find that the door was locked when he returned. The pilot then altered the autopilot to bring it to below ground level and manually switched it to maximum speed. Someone was pounding on the cockpit door as the plane went down. The pilot never once called for help.

*In 1999, EgyptAir Flight 990 crashed near Nantucket, Massachusetts, killing 217 people. Before the crash, the plane's pilot had apparently excused himself to go to the bathroom. The black box recorder then picked up unintelligible commotion and banging on the door. The co-pilot, Gamil El Batouty, could be heard muttering over and over, "I rely on God. I rely on God. I rely on God. I rely on God." The captain eventually forced his back way in and could be heard saying, "What is this? Did you shut the engine[s]?" As the plane crashed, the captain was heard trying to right the plane, saying, "Pull with me. Pull with me."In the EgyptAir case, the NTSB concluded that the crash occurred because of the co-pilot's "manipulation of the airplane controls." But they did not explicitly call it suicide, and Egyptian officials have disputed that it was deliberate.

*In December 1997, Silk Air Flight 185 crashed in Indonesia, killing 104 people on board. Indonesian authorities weren't sure exactly what had happened, though US investigators suggested the captain may have switched off the flight recorders and caused the plane to dive — possibly after his co-pilot had left the cockpit. At the time of the crash, investigators noted, the pilot had been experiencing significant financial difficulties and had work-related problems.

Link: http://www.vox.com/2015/3/26/8294971/pilot-suicide-crash

And, what do we do to protect ourselves ??????

EdenOne

Start using the train more often ....

prologos

There is an interesting video on "der spiegel nachrichten" about the Lufthansa training school for these pilots in Bremen and Arizona. It mentioned a 2 year course, but with him, there was a hiatus, twice. after eight years of being in that corporate ladder, and having logged only 600 hrs, far short of becoming a captain of a 747, and a possible resentment on this flight, possibly not getting more hours, to flying the takeoff and landing, the quiet one* snapped, deep breathing, descending on computer autopilot all the way down. and I felt my own body shredding for all those that died there. *proverb: "quiet waters are deep"

Island Man

Maybe he was an undercover ISIS recruit.

ron rawson

Depression?? The same kind as 1,000's of J-dubs feel everyday....but, mixed in with a dash of anger and hatred. OMG, what if it was found out he was a jw or x-jw.....doubt that. But, what if........