(03-26-2015, 09:53 AM)Midwest Spy Wrote: ISIS and Al-Qaeda are looking for lone wolf operatives. I'm not so sure any 'credit' needs to be claimed as long as someone is completing the mission.

What is the mission if not to instill terror for the group as a means to helping it achieve its goals? That's "terrorism". Increasing the number of people afraid to fly and prompting airlines to increase their security measures does unacknowledged terrorists no good.

Anyway, if he was really on a mission as part of an organized terrorist group or as a lone-wolf inspired by them, there will be evidence of that affiliation or fixation.

I don't understand why you think the terrorist organization with whom he was affiliated or by whom he was inspired wouldn't take credit if he really was a terrorist. That's counter-intuitive, to me.

My guess as to why a group wouldn't want to take credit would be that it could jeopardize the missions of the others that could be in the process of completing THEIR missions.

If one was successful, there are sure to be others on the way, IMO.

(03-26-2015, 09:53 AM)Midwest Spy Wrote: I'll take the other angle.

ISIS and Al-Qaeda are looking for lone wolf operatives. I'm not so sure any 'credit' needs to be claimed as long as someone is completing the mission.

I just saw a few details about him: joined Germanwings in late 2013 and had 630 hours of flying experience. A newbie in the industry.

I'll go so far as to say that Tuesday's flight was the culmination of a specific mission: he became a pilot with the sole purpose of one day being in the position to commit mass murder.

MS...a scary thought, but probably much truth behind that thought

(03-26-2015, 10:33 AM)Midwest Spy Wrote: My guess as to why a group wouldn't want to take credit would be that it could jeopardize the missions of the others that could be in the process of completing THEIR missions.

If one was successful, there are sure to be others on the way, IMO.

Maybe so.

But, just by the fact that terrorism was an obvious possibility right off the bat, any other upcoming missions would already be jeopardized by the predictable suspicion. Many flights were grounded yesterday, airport security has been heightened...

⁹⁄₁₁ was sadly a terrorist success at multiple sites because the flights were all hijacked nearly simultaneously to avoid that exact jeopardy.

Lubitz could have been a terrorist. But, nothing is pointing in that direction for me at this time. I'm very interested in seeing what Interpol turns up in regards to Lubitz's personal and professional life.

P.s. There was one Israeli on the plane. I've seen a couple of commenters suggest that Lubitz, a German, must therefor have been Anti-Semitic and that's what motivated the crash. Seriously.

I sincerely hope it's discovered he's a lunatic that snapped.

Not exactly reassuring but somehow seems better than the alternative.

(03-26-2015, 11:06 AM)Midwest Spy Wrote: I sincerely hope it's discovered he's a lunatic that snapped.

Lufthansa's CEO made a statement this morning after the French prosecutor's press conference.

He said that pilots in the Lufthansa group get medical testing, but not psychological testing. That's a problem; they should be psychologically tested and screened, in my opinion. Commercial pilots have the lives of hundreds in their hands with every flight and potentially hundreds more on the ground if they cause a crash.

The CEO gave details about Lufthansa pilot training after mentioning that Lubitz "interrupted" his training, which he began in 2008. That break lasted several months, but such an interruption isn't uncommon.

CEO Spohr said he couldn't give any information about why the co-pilot had stopped and then restarted his training.

If it was for medical reasons, he said, then that information would have been private before the crash, he said, but it will be part of information gathered during the investigation.

Unsurprisingly, Lufthansa's stock is plummeting.

Source: http://edition.cnn.com/2015/03/26/europe...index.html

Maybe he had a heart attack.

(03-26-2015, 12:25 PM)Maggot Wrote: Maybe he had a heart attack.

Do you realize the astronomical odds of the co-pilot being physically incapacitated at the precise moment the pilot walks out to use the loo?

Not to mention he would've had to put the plane in a dive right before that too.

(03-26-2015, 12:25 PM)Maggot Wrote: Maybe he had a heart attack.

It's possible, but that doesn't seem likely based on the facts that were presented this morning.

He was breathing normally throughout the descent, according to the flight recordings.

And, he was only 28-years-old and medically approved for flight.

Also, what are the chances that he would just happen to have a heart-attack during the brief moment the pilot left the cockpit to reportedly use the bathroom?

Ironically, as I understand it, emergency entry into the cockpit by crew members was altered after 9/11. The crew can now only enter when access is granted from inside the cockpit. Helps keep hijackers out, but also kept the captain from regaining entry in this case.

That rule is only in America not European flights.

Watch ISIS claim responsibility for them getting Lubitz to do their bidding! EVEN if they really didn't, just to keep the ISIS terror factor going!

(03-26-2015, 01:05 PM)Maggot Wrote: That rule is only in America not European flights.

The pilots either activate or deactivate emergency entry from inside the cockpit. Many planes flying in all different regions in the world are built by the same manufacturer.

Anyway, the co-pilot for this European flight denied emergency entry from inside the cockpit. There was no way for anyone outside of the cockpit to get in without the cockpitted pilot granting access.

The A320 is designed with safeguards to allow emergency entry into the cockpit if a pilot inside is unresponsive. But the override code known to the crew does not go into effect — and indeed goes into a lockdown — if the person inside the cockpit specifically denies entry. Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/euro...story.html

Airlines in Europe are not required to have two people in the cockpit at all times, unlike the standard U.S. operating procedure, which was changed after the ⁹⁄₁₁ attacks to require a flight attendant to take the spot of a briefly departing pilot.

Europe’s third-largest budget airline, Norwegian Air Shuttle, announced Thursday that it plans to adopt new rules requiring two crew members to always be present in the cockpit. <-- Good idea -- this should be global policy, in my opinion.

Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/euro...story.html

(03-26-2015, 10:33 AM)Midwest Spy Wrote: My guess as to why a group wouldn't want to take credit would be that it could jeopardize the missions of the others that could be in the process of completing THEIR missions.

If one was successful, there are sure to be others on the way, IMO.

The terrorists IMO would take credit for this immediately because that is their MO. They want every living person to feel fear as they board an airplane. They are more overt than other groups in keeping their strategies a secret. I believe they thrive on creating fear. I don't believe that this crash was a terrorist group, but rather a one man "terrorist." Probably a mentally unstable person. A passenger who blew up a Continental airliner in 1962 took everyone with him when he planted a bomb in the bathroom and killed everyone on board including the first pilot I ever flew with and was a good friend (Captain on that doomed flight). A month earlier, I lost another friend on the Flying Tiger plane that disappeared out of Guam and no trace of that plane was ever found (during troop buildup in Vietnam).

I'm not gettin' 30,000 ft. up in the air for love or money.

(03-26-2015, 05:26 PM)Duchess Wrote: I'm not gettin' 30,000 ft. up in the air for love or money.

I think all airlines really need to do periodic psych screens/tests on all of their pilots, just like they do with physicals.

A close friend of his claims that Lubitz halted his training in 2008 due to "depression and burn-out". That was reported by the Daily Mail though, so I'm taking it with a grain of salt until it's formally confirmed.

The fear everyone must have felt bothers me so much when I think of it. The absolute terror of it. It's horrible.

Investigators removed what they have deemed "a signifcant discovery" from Lubitz's Dusseldorf apartment.

They're not providing details, only saying that it's being sent for testing and could help explain his actions. They did, however, confirm that it wasn't a suicide note.

Here's a graphic depiction and timeline for what investigators believe went down in the cockpit.


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-...ences.html

(03-26-2015, 05:26 PM)Duchess Wrote:

I'm not gettin' 30,000 ft. up in the air for love or money.

Flying is very safe when you think of all of the air traffic which crowd the skies each day and night. The chances of this happening to you is one in a billion so don't worry, just try it. I may be off on my statistics, but you get my drift...

I want to know the co-pilots motive(s). I think (obviously) all airlines should adopt the standard that no ONE person is left in the cockpit alone. This is freaking tragic. I can't imagine the desperation the people outside that cockpit door felt...nothing they could do.