Germanwings Reminds Us Of The Human Factor Of Air Travel

I grew up in the airline industry, and have been flying since I was 18 months old. But despite my technical knowledge of aviation, I’ve always been a nervous flier, sometimes reduced to tears by turbulence, and hyper aware of every aspect of every aviation accident.

My mom, a much more sanguine traveler than I am, has always soothed me with the same words. “Don’t worry. The pilots want to get there as much as you do.”

Now, sadly, the Germanwings accident reminds us that in very rare instances, that isn’t true.

While aviation companies such as Boeing Boeing and Airbus can build all manner of fail safe measures into their aircraft, there is still one variable they and the airlines cannot completely control. The human factor.

According to French investigators, the co-pilot of the Germanwings plane deliberately locked out the captain, and put the Airbus A320 into the ground, killing 150 people, including 144 passengers and six crew members.

The New York Times reported Thursday that a preliminary review of the cockpit voice recorder has sounds of the other pilot, pounding on the locked cockpit door as the plane went into its fatal descent.

The same tape reportedly features silence from the pilot at the controls. No mayday signal, no conversation, just the sound of his breathing as the doomed yet hurtling toward the Alps.

Knowing the airline industry from the inside out, I am certain that aviation personnel around the world are devastated by the circumstances of the crash. Passengers, meanwhile, cannot be blamed for being fearful, especially after a tragic year that included highly publicized incidents involving Malaysia Airlines, one still unexplained.

Thomas Winkelmann (L), Managing Director of Germanwings, a Lufthansa subsidiary, and Carsten Spohr, Chairman of German airline Lufthansa, speak to the media following the latest developments in the investigation into the crash of Germanwings flight 4U9525 in southern France on Tuesday. (Photo by Sascha Steinbach/Getty Images)

Pilots are likely to come under scrutiny for weeks to come. Why is he or she leaving the cockpit? Are they allowed to do that? Get back inside, some passenger is likely to exclaim at the sight of a captain’s wings.

The accident doubtlessly will mean a review of global standards governing pilots’ movement aboard aircraft. In the U.S., the practice is for a cockpit to be staffed by two people at all times. If a pilot needs to step out, a flight attendant generally is authorized to take the jump seat until they return.

That hasn’t been the practice overseas. Even Carsten Spohr, the CEO of Lufthansa, which operates Germanwings, acknowledged that the airline’s cockpits sometimes have a single pilot, because one might be attending to personal hygiene.

Spohr said Thursday he was “devastated,” knowing that the pilot deliberately crashed the jet. “”This is a tragic one-off event. We are proud of the quality of our pilots,” Spohr said, according to Deutsche Welle.

Depending on the outcome of the investigation, Germanwings now is likely to join the sad list of accidents deliberately caused by pilot suicide. But it’s important to remember that commercial aviation accidents, in general, are rare, and accidents like Germanwings are even more rare.

That doesn’t help for fearful passengers, who will be replaying the Germanwings scenario over and over in their heads, fueled by what’s bound to be an endless loop of dire news reports.

Is there anything that can be done to prevent further such incidents? Lufthansa pilots already underwent regular psychological screenings, and pilots on all commercial carriers go through various types of training programs meant to assure they are capable of handling the aircraft they fly.

Too, it isn’t likely that regulations on reinforced cockpit doors are likely to be changed, especially given the political tumult around the world.

So much of air travel is simply based on trust — that the plane is properly maintained, that fellow passengers will behave, that the crew is trained to handle emergencies.

No doubt, the Germanwings crash has shaken that trust. And while safety statistics overwhelmingly are in favor of incident free flights, it may take my fellow nervous fliers some time before they can feel comfortable again.

The Malaysia Airlines Accidents

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Originally published at www.forbes.com on March 26, 2015.