Is Airline Travel Becoming Unsafe?

Pilots deliberately crashing planes…

Incidents of disruptive passengers have almost trebled in the last three years with cases of passengers fighting cabin crew and each other.

German Wings

The media recently reported a few weeks ago the First Officer of German Wings flight 4U9525, Andreas Lubitz, appeared to have deliberately flown an Airbus A320 into a mountainside in the French Alps after locking the captain out of the cockpit, killing all 150 people on board.

Egypt Air

In 1999 thirty minutes after takeoff from New York on a nonstop flight to Cairo, the fully loaded Egypt Air 990 Boeing 767, a 300-series long-range model, dropped from 36,000 feet to 19,000 feet in half a minute, an enormously fast dive that probably made the aircraft break up in several large pieces. At 19,000 feet the Boeing disappeared from radar; its pieces then hit the Atlantic Ocean. All 217 passengers and crew died. The investigation showed that pilot Gamal al-Batouti had muttered several times an Arabic phrase often associated with the moments before death, “I rely on God,” as the autopilot was disconnected and the plane entered a steep dive. The position of the tailplanes found amid the wreckage suggested that the person seated on the left, al-Batouti, had been pushing the yoke forward to make the plane dive, while the other pilot tried to pull up.

Mozambique Airlines

In November 2013 Mozambique Airlines Embraer 190 Flight TM470 went down in a remote area of the southwestern African nation while operating a scheduled passenger service from Maputo, Mozambique, to Luanda, Angola.
According to a summary by Aviation Safety Network of the preliminary investigation results, the crash was quite possibly intentional. Jo?o Abreu, head of the Institute of Civil Aviation of Mozambique, said the jet dove toward the ground at 6,000 feet a minute. Data from the cockpit voice recorder indicate that minutes before the crash, the co-pilot left the cockpit for the bathroom, and returned to find the door shut. The flight data recorder, or black box, indicates according to preliminary results that the captain manually changed on the autopilot the flight altitude from 38,000 feet to below ground level. He also retarded the engine throttles to idle and manually selected the maximum operating speed -- a contradictory action that makes little sense. The voice recorder shows that someone, likely the first officer, pounded on the cockpit door before the crash. There was no mayday call from the experienced captain.

It isn’t officially known whether the captain had shown signs of mental issues; unverified rumours suggest he may have had marital problems, and that a son had died. He and the first officer had both passed their routine medical tests recently. What is certain, though, is that jetliners, especially almost brand-new ones with an excellent safety record, do not tumble spontaneously out of the sky from cruising altitude, and that the captain’s actions are inconsistent with the most basic airmanship.

Air India

A few days ago Air India grounded two of its pilots after a physical scuffle between the two just before takeoff.

The captain and first officer had a fight in the cockpit, as they were preparing the passenger plane for departure from the Rajasthan city of Jaipur to Delhi on Sunday 5th April 2015.

The First Officer was irritated by the Captain’s request to write down critical information for the flight, such as the number of passengers on board, takeoff weight and fuel uptake. He took offence at this and reportedly beat up the Captain. In the larger interest of the airline, the commander decided to go ahead with the flight and flew to Delhi.

The airline denied any violence took place, saying there was only an argument between the pair, according to the Press Trust of India.

“There were only heated exchanges between the commander and co-pilot over some issue. We have already de-rostered the two pilots pending an enquiry,” an Air India spokesman told the news agency.

Misbehaving Passengers

United Kingdom

The UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said 114 cases of 'disruptive passengers' were recorded last year, including bomb threats, assaults on cabin crew, smoking in the toilets and trying to gain entry to the cockpit.

The figure for 2014 compared with 85 instances in 2013, 47 in 2012 and 39 in 2011, on British planes.

But despite the sharp rise in recent years, the problem is not as acute as it was in the late 1990s, the CAA said.

Alcohol has been cited as a factor in the stark increase, with passengers consuming large amounts in departure lounges while waiting to board their flight.

Of the cases recorded by the aviation watchdog, 34 related to assaults on either cabin crew or passengers, while 18 involved smoking in the plane's toilet.

USA

In the US The Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) deals with around 150 air rage incidents complaints every year and over the past 20 years has had to take action against more than 4,000 passengers.

China

China has for some time experienced problems with disruptive passengers, many losing their tempers, with others claiming not to be aware of the rules of air travel.

A brawl involving three women erupted on a Chinese flight from to Chongqing to Hong Kong just before Christmas when two of them complained to a mum that her baby was making too much noise.

The women, all believed to be Chinese, were warned that the pilot would be forced to turn back and make an emergency landing if they didn't stop fighting.

And only a few days before a female passenger, from China, attacked the flight attendant with a cup of noodles in a violent row that began when she found out that she wouldn't be sitting next to her boyfriend on a charter flight from Bangkok to Nanjing, China.

Passengers who misbehave on commercial flights in China could soon find themselves grounded.

The Civil Aviation Administration of China said it was considering steps to blacklist offending passengers but said no firm decision had been made on the proposed 'no fly list'.

It also revealed that disruptive passengers could face prosecution if they cause disruption or breach the proposed blacklist restrictions.

So is travelling with the airlines getting dangerous because of these mentally unstable people either flying the plane or sitting next to you in the cabin OR is this just a reflection of where society is going?

Fabrizio Poli is an Aviation Analyst & Managing Partner of Boutique Aviation Company Tyrus Wings. He is also an accomplished Airline Transport Pilot having flown both private Jets and for the airlines. Fabrizio is also a bestselling author and inspirational speaker. You can tune in weekly to Fabrizio's business Podcast Living Outside the Cube.Fabrizio can be reached on:

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