It’s all fate in the end

Every time something horribly tragic happens which involves a deliberate malicious act, all the experts come out of the woodwork saying “we should do this” or “this could have been prevented.”

But could it have, really? Without wanting to sound too fatalistic, I have come to the point where I think no matter how many preventive measures we try to take, there is really nothing we can do about what drives people who are hell-bent on self-destruction, taking others along with them.

So, while the “two in a cockpit” rule taken by airlines all over the world after the Germanwings tragedy is commendable, the fact is that if a terrorist wants to take over a plane, or if a crew member is so unhinged that he plunges a plane into a mountainside, killing everyone on board, there is always going to be a way around it.  Did it ever occur to anyone before this that a co-pilot could do what Andreas Lubitz did? No – because there is absolutely no way we could have predicted something so seemingly far-fetched and so very, very cold-blooded.

It all comes down to fate though, doesn’t it, at the end? A throw of the dice which dictates why the people who were on that plane were doomed, and perhaps someone who was meant to travel that day but changed their mind, was spared.  One of the more chilling details to emerge was that one 15-year-old girl who was part of a group on a student exchange programme was at the train station when she realised she had left her passport behind.  However, her host family offered to race the girl and all her travel documents to the airport in Barcelona directly, allowing ALL THE STUDENTS to get on the flight in time.  Will that host family ever stop torturing themselves with “what if’s”?  

It’s like all those stories we heard post 9/11 about people who were late for work because they missed their bus or forgot something at home. Or those who just happened to visit the Twin Towers that day. The randomness of it all is so sobering and terrifying that if we had to stop and think about it, it would screw with our heads and we would just sit rigid at home with curtains drawn, paralyzed with fear at the thought of going out into the world.

This particular story has been like a punch in the stomach because we couldn’t blame it on the usual suspects who usually take over planes. From what we know so far, it was a result of Lubitz’s warped state of mind due to medical problems which he was hiding from his employers.   According to the latest reports, he was not only suffering from severe psychosomatic mental illness but was also losing his vision which would prevent him from continuing to pursue his ambition to be a long haul pilot.

The human brain is a mysterious, sometimes brilliant, and sometimes very scary thing.  Anyone who has suffered from crippling depression will tell you that dark thoughts are constantly swirling in there, but as many psychologists and psychiatrists have already pointed out, those who are so plunged deep into a black hole that they cannot crawl out of it, are usually only intent on self-harm.  They just don’t want to live in this world any more, so they shut down, and shun everyone, wanting only to be left alone.

But, because we are all wired differently, and there are is such a wide spectrum of mental illness, it would be very irresponsible to draw hasty conclusions until we are sure of the facts, especially as new details continue to emerge every day.

One neighbor was reported as saying: “I didn’t know him well, but to me he seemed very private, perhaps a little bit withdrawn. But who would have guessed at something so shocking happening?”   That, to me, sounds like the description we always hear when someone shoots up a school or any other public place and then turns the gun on themselves.  The only difference is that, in this case, instead of a gun, a plane was used as a murder weapon.

The question on everyone’s mind, of course, is what happens next?   According to this latest report: 

“Questions have been raised about what airlines should do to ensure their pilots are fit to fly.

Germanwings, the Lufthansa subsidiary that Lubitz joined in 2013, declined today to comment when asked whether the company was aware of any psychological problems he might have had. But it said he had passed all required medical check-ups.

Aviation experts say those checks are stringent but focus mainly on physical health. A pilot’s mental state is usually only assessed before companies decide whether to admit them to a training programme – and even then a determined person could hide a latent problem.

David Hasse, the editor-in-chief of German aviation website airliners.de, said: “The test that will get you into a Lufthansa flight training program is a very hard test and this is why most people who get into those pilot classes will train for those tests.”

“There are coaching facilities, companies that are specialised in training people on how to pass those tests, and they will also advise you on how to behave in the psychological tests.”