generalspeaking

Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Oops! Did We Say That? Well....

"Lufthansa will continue to provide the investigating authorities with its full and unlimited support. [But would not provide additional comment on the matter] because we do not wish to anticipate the ongoing investigation by the Düsseldorf Public Prosecutor."
Lufthansa statement

"I would warn against making the crew into completely transparent people. That would just mean that someone would not go to a doctor."
Christoph Drescher, representative, Independent Flight Attendants Organization

One never knows what one may find when one goes looking. But now Lufthansa knows of a certainty what can be discovered in a search of its records. Goodness gracious, an email tucked away that someone overlooked. Andreas Lubitz -- despite Lufthansa iterating and reiterating that it had no idea because it hadn't been informed by the co-pilot that he was suffering psychological health problems -- had, after all, informed the airlines of his condition.

So despite his mental affliction somewhere deep down in his psyche he had an idea that someone with his problems might not be viewed as an ideal candidate to take charge of a cockpit in the opinion of those who do the hiring of airline pilots. He had wanted to rejoin Lufthansa's pilot training program after a hiatus of a month or so while having his mental state mentored by health professionals.

Honourably enough, under those earlier circumstances, the young man had forwarded on to the flight training school the explanatory email inclusive of medical documents setting out a "previous episode of severe depression".

So the damning question of whether Lufthansa and its economy Germanwings operation had knowledge of Mr. Lubitz's fragile mental equilibrium has been answered, finally. Which leaves the question that has been iterated and reiterated why would they entrust the lives of passengers to someone whose background indicated such a degree of mental instability?

German investigating prosecutors indicated that Mr. Lubitz had in addition been treated for suicidal tendencies. No red flags, no warning light blipping into any flight authority's consciousness? Lufthansa's statement is not entirely forthcoming, having made no mention of when the depression had occurred, what treatment they knew of, or whether the airline had taken the responsive initiative to further investigate before declaring this candidate for flight captaincy 100% fit.

After all, Lufthansa's chief executive, Carsten Sphor, himself a former pilot, declared that Mr. Lubitz, a fine young man with a burning ambition to fly, was "100 percent flightworthy without any limitations." Candidates for flight school, Mr. Spohr elaborated last week, were chosen not merely by demonstrating excellent technical ability, but also with an eye to their psychological fitness.

And Lufthansa's screening process was second to none.

Lufthansa's decision to readmit the young man to pilot training after a grave depressive bout now appears even more irresponsible and oblivious to passenger safety than ever, considering Mr. Spohr's statement regarding Lufthansa's screening to be state of the art "and we're proud of it".

There are a lot of grieving families out there, and many of them are German families. Proud as they are of Germany's premier airline and its international reputation, they were prouder still of their family members.

Sixteen high school students from a town north of Dusseldorf where the plane was scheduled to land with 150 aboard, safe and sound, were killed in that deliberate crash. About half of that 150 death toll were German citizens.

Not only has Germany's reputation suffered as a result of many international passengers having met their death through seeming official disinterest in public safety, trumped by concern over one individual's right to achieve his aspirations against all logical indications otherwise, but German loss of life has also been wrenching.

Lufthansa, in revealing its utter and quite inexplicable lack of due diligence in such a vital matter, must have resigned itself to the certain knowledge that it will pay for its unforgivable lapse in operational judgement. Whether in the fallacy of the greater public interest in upholding the 'human rights' of individuals whom biology has fated not to hold such power in their mentally fragile hands, or gambling that nothing untoward would ever occur because who in their right mind would effect such a disaster?

Very few, in their right mind.

Lawsuits by grieving family members hoping to assuage their grief by any means possible? Entirely likely.