#GermanWings: Do we need protection from suicidal pilots?

As investigation into #GermanWings flight progresses, there seems to be a growing evidence that 27-year-old co-pilot Andreas Lubitz deliberately crashed the Airbus A320 into the mountainside in the French Alps, killing 150 people. The captain, Patrick Sondenheimer, had stepped out of the cockpit, during which time Lubitz locked the door and began the aircraft’s lethal descent by allegedly reprogramming the autopilot to its minimum possible setting.

Sondenheimer reportedly tried to regain access to the cockpit by first knocking, then pleading and finally attempting to breakdown the door, while Lubitz showed no reaction and spoke no words during the final moments of his life. On the black box recording that also captured the terrified screams of passengers; Lubick can allegedly be heard "breathing normally".

While the investigation is far from over and many questions still need to be answered (like how can “Normal Breathing” be heard in a CVR recording and why there are no sounds associated with Captains use of Emergency access code to enter the cockpit, and Lubitz’s action to block this entry, recorded in the CVR), the question that is being debated is, how can we protect ourselves from a suicidal pilot?

In my opinion, the question itself is flawed. The question we need to ask is not how to protect ourselves from suicidal pilots, but how can we protect ourselves from a system that allowed a suicidal pilot to be present in the cockpit!

Pilots do not work in a vacuum. They are employed by an organization. The organization is expected to have in place policies and procedures to control the quality of pilots hired. Thereafter, it is a matter of management. Humans cannot be managed by books. Humans and objects have one essential difference…humans have feelings. Human need to be managed humanely. They need to provided leadership and they need to be supervised by other humans who have the skill-sets and experience to be recognized as leaders. I find it amazing that none at #GermanWings ever noticed any behavioural changes or signs of stress and depression in Andreas Lubitz. Clearly, his managers were not connected to him. They did not know the man they were managing.

Theories of Lubitz’s motives proliferated in the aftermath of the crash. An ex-girlfriend of Lubitz’s has come forward to claim that the co-pilot fantasized about fame and notoriety, and wanted to do something to make an impact and to make the world remember him. If Lubitz did intentionally crash this plane, one factor that primes all is his struggle with depression.

According to news reports, he suffered from a depressive episode of burnout in 2009, and was forced to withdraw from pilot training as a result. Investigators searching Lubitz’s home found several doctors’ notes attesting that he was too ill to work, including one from the day of the crash; evidently none of these notes, one of which was torn up, had been delivered to Lubitz’s employer. Medications for “severe depression” were also discovered in Lubitz’s residence. In addition, on Monday, according to the New York Times, the German prosecutor in Düsseldorf said that Lubitz had been treated for “suicidal tendencies” before he got his pilot’s license. There is little doubt that Lubitz was suffering intensely from depression at the time of his death. The question that comes to my mind is, why none among his family, friends, work colleagues and managers ever noticed the signs of his losing battle with depression?

As regards suicidal tendency, a prevailing theory of suicide holds that the decision is usually impulsive and sudden. “In people with severe depression who are suicidal, the thing we worry the most about is impulsivity,” says Dr. Charuvastra. “Many studies of suicide, at both the individual level and population level, demonstrate that impulsivity is one of the major risk factors that can catalyse suicidal thoughts into action.”

In the book “Suicidal Behaviour: Underlying dynamics” edited by Updesh Kumar, to which many renown psychologists have contributed, Professor Michael Anestis, Director of the Suicide and Emotional Dysregulation Lab at the University of Southern Mississippi, states that there is more to suicide than the impulse theory.

“Where everybody would agree on impulsivity is that impulsive folks attempt and die by suicide more than non-impulsive folks,” Dr. Anestis states. Where he disagrees with most is that according to him, it stops at that level. Contrary to the idea that suicide is born of an instantaneous burst of emotional pain, Dr. Anestis believes that the capability to commit suicide develops over long periods of time, during which a person becomes habituated to both the pain and the idea of dying.

Working with US Military, Dr. Anestis and his colleagues have found that those who have completed basic training, for example, have a higher suicide capability than those who have not, suggesting that learning to cope with the idea of death and significant physical stress builds up the endurance it takes to go through with suicide. Thus, there may be more time between a person’s initial consideration of suicide and the act itself than impulse theory would allow—and more of an opportunity for intervention than many suspect.

Preventing suicide requires a web of support: adequate and accessible mental healthcare, employment provisions that protect employees struggling with mental health problems, and, perhaps least often acknowledged, a society that is willing to express honest concern for people in pain.

In cases like Lubitz’s, it is hard to strike a proper balance between holding a person responsible for what they have done and taking into account factors, like severe depression, that may have mitigated their judgment. Therefore, it is worth being clear: Lubitz is guilty of his crime, and the realities of depression and suicidality are worth considering, not to tidy up his reputation, but to help establish a safer, more conscientious world for those left behind. Humane management of personnel, being connected to the staff on a human level, knowing the people one manages and providing leadership & mentoring to those in need is the only way to achieve this. In the end, it all boils down to a proactive and interactive management.

I am surprised this was missing at an airline like #Lufthansa and #GermanWings…and I wonder where else this is still missing! In the end, humans perform inside an organizations policies and procedures and it’s only through correct, coherent and scientific application of principles of Human Resources Development and Leadership can we mitigate the risk of suicidal pilots in our cockpits.

Stay Safe,

The Erring Human.