General Chat

The latest plane crash brings it all much closer to home. Such a horrific thing to happen. The young woman from Holland, Iris Claassen, was one of my g.daughter's friends, only 20 years old....they belonged to a big circle of friends.. We are all very shocked of course, but thoroughly disgusted by the media. As soon as the news filtered though about Iris's (and all the 149 people) death, the media decended like hordes of vultures in front of her parents house, also constantly pestering them with phone calls. All wanting the 'juicy' details, hoping they could photograph the grieving family ...how low can they go. In the store where she worked, there is a table set up, with candles, flowers and a book where everyone can leave a message. This is a good idea, it may bring some crumbs of comfort to Iris's loved ones in the future, knowing how much people care. That first crash of the MH17 Malaysian plane in Ukraine, killed a family of 6....bless them, they lived about 10 km from here. Another vuctim was a lovely woman who worked in a big Toko supermarket where we often go to. She was more or less the 'face' of that Toko....am I imagining it, or are there an inordinate amount of accidents/near misses with planes the last year or so? Have always hated flying........from now on, I will be even more worried about my son because he flies all over the globe for his work.. Not that I will tell him this. Thinking of all those loved ones who's lives have been ripped apart.

Now to find out it was a deliberate crash makes it so much worse

Makes me wonder if the co pilot that was flying,

was who he claimed to be..........

Bob

This is so Tragic .RiP to All the Dear People. many questions to be asked & why did this happen .Thinking of All the Family`s & friends Barbra

Horrendous so much worse to think it could have been deliberate. Those poor people R.I.P all of them.

I agree with all of you........very, very tragic, it doesn't dear thinking about. Another reason to be disgusted with the media, is the way several of the Dutch papers had such sensational headlines to many articles about this horrific crash, i.e ......" The bodies were completely pulverized"....... Can you imagine how all the loved ones feel about this? It makes it even more heartbreaking than it already is, and, in yet in others,........."there may be bits & pieces of remains, none bigger than attache cases".......surely it isn't necessary to print such utterly shocking details? Shame that the co-pilot didn't just jump off a bridge to top himself, there was no need to drag all those innocent victims with him? If Hell exists, I and everyone else,hope he burns there eternally. I was touched by the many bouquets of flowers, cards, candles standing all around the big table in the store where Iris worked, had to walk away quickly after leaving a message in the book left on the table for this occasion....I am not a direct friend of the lass or her family, it just affected me , knowing that a young woman, is cut down from life far, far too soon.

I just want to add this: normally, I don't want to post any sensational, miserable things, but this really got to me, made me very angry, sad and helpess, wishing I could do something to ease all these people's pain......horrible knowing you can't.

The British media are as bad on BBC saying that the teas of rescuers have to bring down bodies/body parts.

I cringed when the reporters said that..

R.I.P the 149 people who are lost forever to their loved ones..

Can't say the same thing for the co-pilot if he wanted to commit hari kari then let him take himself off in a private plane and smsh that up.

We may never know and although it all points to a pilot to be fair to him/her and their relatives it may have been a medical emergency.

As I understand it the flight crew can access the flight deck buy entering a code, although this can be overridden by a toggle switch between the pilots seats for between 5 and 20 mins, it then needs overriding again to keep the door locked.

Two possibilities come to mind a pilot collapse and inadvertently operating the switch.
A pilot collapse and a fault in the code pad, or the plane diving and panic causing the wrong code to be entered.

My niece is a air hostess and been doing it for 20 years. Today she said she is now beginning to worry whether to carry on with her job

he set up the auto pilot to as to dive the plane until an altitude of 100m. Then he just sat back and waited. People with a history of severe depression should not be doing this kind of work.

The insurance cos. may well refuse to pay out. If the eventual decision is suicide then Lufthansa would be liable to inlimited damages.

Old planes young flyers and low fares have never been a great choice.

Such a terrible accident but then to find it was possibly/probably a deliberate act by one of the pilots, must be beyond comprehension to the grieving relatives of those lost.

For the pilot's family too, one can only have the deepest sympathy, they will lose a lot of support and possibly be hounded by many people and they won't know how to grieve their son if he turns out to be a murderer.

Heartbreaking for all

Lizx

Eight plane crashes caused by apparent pilot suicide have been recorded in the past 40 years, leaving more than 400 people dead, according to official figures.

The information, from the Aviation Safety Network database, shows deliberate actions by pilots and co-pilots have left 416 passengers, crew members and people on the ground dead since 1976.

It comes after investigators revealed that the German co-pilot of Germanwings flight 4U9525, named as Andreas Lubitz, appeared to have deliberated crashed the plane into the Alps, killing 150 people.