I have seen this movie before...and it came on T.V. and reminded me of

[Reality Man]

this very recent tragedy of the pilot committing suicide/mass murder.


One variable in this tragedy is whether a pilot of some transportation worker has an expectation of privacy. Should a person with suicidal thoughts be re-directed into another position.

To another point made by referencing this movie is whether young people/teenagers should be able to have access to flying planes (commercial/military) until a level of experience AND maturity in life has been experienced.

Thoughts? I know it's a broad generalization of all young people but I think being young and being in certain positions may not be compatible. Young people on the board. Your response? I thought I would liven up the board.




Reality Man

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/chronicle/

 

[michnittlion]

Can't a suicidal young person take a car

and deliberately enter I-75 the wrong way during a busy rush hour? Or deliberately veer into the other lane on a rural 2-way highway? Thereby causing the deaths of multiple innocents (along with his own)?


The incident in Germany was tragic and all, but sometimes these things happen. I know that "sometimes these things happen" sounds horrible, but it's true. We cannot prevent 100% of everything. If my above hypothetical occurred, nobody would call for raising the age to get a drivers license.


Just mandate that 2 people need to be in the cockpit of commercial flights at all times (as has been the rule in America since 2001), and that's it. No need to put some sort of age limit like 30 years old on being a commercial pilot. That pilot was 27 years old, that's definitely old enough to be a co-pilot. If he wasn't a co-pilot and was still suicidal and intent on mass murder, he would have found some other way.

This post was edited on 3/30 8:35 PM by michnittlion

 

[michigangoblue999]

No guarantee of death using a car

Just sayin.

 

[michnittlion]

True ... I guess the larger point

Every time I leave my house, I am putting myself at some risk. I go to the grocery store, there could be a fellow shopper who snaps and mass-murders other shoppers with a gun. I drive down I-471 in the AM, there could be a lunatic driving south in the northbound lanes. I hop on a commercial plane, the pilot could decide to use it as a suicide devise. Et cetera, et cetera.


I do think, at least when it comes to planes, we've done a "good enough" job minimizing those risks. I guess we could always go further (mandate THREE people in the cockpit at all times!), but you do have to weigh marginal gains vs. incremental costs. And honestly, that risk will never be exactly zero (what if all three pilots are suicidal and act as a team?!?!). IMO, just globalize standards for having 2 people in the cockpit at all times (like has been the case in America since 2001), and that's good enough. No need for a 30-year-old age limit.


Besides, even with 2 people in the cockpit a determined-enough pilot could still circumvent things. For example, one can still get steak knives at a restaurant post-security in an airport (TSA costs $6,000,000,000 per year but we still have that rather glaring loophole in the system). A pilot steals one of those knives then stabs his co-pilot once the plane is airborne.

This post was edited on 3/31 2:56 PM by michnittlion