Inside the Cockpit: Germanwings Airline Crash

Travelling is supposed to be an enjoyable affair, but it was everything but fun for the 150 people aboard Germanwings Flight 9525.

On Tuesday, March 24th the flight was travelling from Barcelona, Spain, to Düsseldorf, Germany, when it began a rapid descent from 38,000 feet and eventually crashed into the French Alps, killing the 144 passengers and six crew members on board.

The majority of the media frenzy has focused on the flight’s co-pilot, 27-year-old Andreas Lubitz. Details are constantly coming to light suggesting Lubitz may have been suffering from mental health problems. He had visited an eye doctor due to vision problems as well as a neuropsychologist, where he expressed that he was too stressed to work, a European government official told the news outlet CNN.

Antidepressants were reportedly found in Lubitz’s apartment and documents from one doctor were found revealing Lubitz had an unidentified illness that made him unfit to fly an airplane. In 2009, Lubitz had sought psychiatric treatment while on a leave from his pilot training. As of March 30th officials claim that Lubitz had been hiding an illness from his employer; investigators discovered shredded medical leave notes in the young man’s apartment. However, Germanwings, the airline company, stated it had never received any medical note from their late co-pilot.

Photo of Andreas Lubitz running a half marathon in 2009.

Patrick Sondenheimer is gaining media attention for a very different reason. The 34-year-old was the captain of the flight. He was described by his grandmother as being a loving father of two children and who loved his work as a pilot. Sondenheimer had logged more than 6,000 hours of flight time and had worked for Germanwings since May 2014. During the fatal flight, he was locked out of the cockpit after going to the restroom. On an allegedly leaked transcript of the flight’s final minutes, he can be heard yelling to Lubitz to, “Open the damn door!” Investigators of the crash have emphasized that it appeared he had done everything he could to get back into the cockpit, even attempting to break the door down. His grandmother told CNN, “He deserves the German Medal of Honor for his heroic attempt to break into the cockpit.” Several people on social media have spoken out to praise the captain for his brave actions.

The recent events in Europe have prompted many questions: What made Lubitz decide to crash the airplane? Was Lubitz actually suffering from a mental illness? Though authorities have ruled out terrorism and other malicious motives, the constant stream of details coming to light have many calling for new cockpit security protocols and enhanced screenings of pilots before takeoff.

One of the biggest questions on people’s minds is whether or not this was a suicide. Carsten Spohr, the CEO of Lufthansa (the company that owns Germanwings) stated, “If a person kills himself and 149 others, the word ‘suicide’ should be replaced with another word.” However, clinical psychologist and president of the American Association of Suicidology Bill Schmitz begs to differ. In his opinion piece for CNN, he wrote, “If we want to prevent tragedies like the Germanwings crash, we must first be able to call it what it is: another tragic suicide with horrifying collateral damage.”

With suicide-homicide events, such as the shooter at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012 or the suicide bomber in Afghanistan last week, we need to look to the origin of the problem: mental illness. In the United States, more than 41,000 people commit suicide each year. The subject has been getting more attention and officials have been working to educate people in order to move past stigmas and stereotypes. The issue has even touched our “Home under the Dome” – just last month we lost a dear classmate, Lisa Yang, to suicide.

There’s no doubt that further background checks and medical screens can help prevent tragedies such as the Germanwings airplane crash from occurring, but addressing the cause can be even more effective.

As Dr. Schmitz wrote, “This was a suicide, this was a tragedy; we can either learn from it, or not.” 

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Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

Images:1, 2, 3, 4

• Suicide