Depression suggested as "reason" German co-pilot crashed airliner

[devifemme]

A few hours ago (http://devifemme.livejournal.com/1708274.html), I posted one of my periodic recaps of my experience with depression. (I've done so here for years: each time I've received ample positive feedback, since it is one of the more common ailments -- and yet people resist treating

Comments

[ggary]

It's on the news as I write, and both me and my wife are bemoaning the fact that speculation (and quite often ill-informed speculation) is being presented as fact. 'Well, he suffered from depression, so he was capable of anything, right?' Wrong. One of the problems is that nowadays the news is having to feed a 24-hour rolling news service that requires constant topping up. No information? Make something up! He does seem to have been a troubled individual, but the truth is that we might never know exactly what made him act as he did, and this is simply anathema to people. We're used to closure, to narrative, to being able to move on, and I fear that the 'He suffered from depression, so he crashed the plane' version of what happened will end up as the story that the media will go for if nothing else comes along.

[devifemme]

Right, Gary -- which is why I was saying a so-called "psychotic break" (NOT garden-variety depression) needed to be posited. A leading response on Google defines a psychotic break as "an episode of acute psychosis in someone with schizophrenia ..."

[pony_rocks]

Exactly.

[devifemme]

Thanks, Anna. You and Gary understand that the media jumping to a stupid conclusion is anything but helpful to finding out what actually happened.

I didn't catch it yesterday, but current news reports cite the "Bild" interview of Maria W, a Germanwings flight attendant who dated the co-pilot: "One day I'll do something.. then everyone will know my name and remember it'...now it's obvious. He did it because he realised that, due to his health problems, his big dream of working at Lufthansa, of a having job as a pilot, and as a pilot on long-distance flights, was nearly impossible."

[matrixmann]

I wonder where people have this information from.
Either I don't listen enough or international and some national media know more than police and prosecution office have already publicly announced.

[devifemme]

You are correct -- alas, as several comments here indicate, the media are being provided with airy speculation by a hundred different sources (some official, some NOT).

[matrixmann]

See, I thought to be determined that there's nothing officially going round...

[devifemme]

Well, I sense that a certain amount of this seemingly "unsourced" (meaning a good source, but who convinced a good journalist that he, source, had to be protected up the proverbial wazoo -- OR, in all too much of today's instant-media, not that at all) info is mid/high-level official. So, to your question, there surely is LOTS of authentic stuff "going around."

Also kilo-tons of the very purest bullshit...

[mallorys_camera]

My completely uninformed thought -- based on the his/her autos he splurged on for Girlfriend With Whom He Was Having Problems -- is that he was bipolar.

[devifemme]

I don't disagree, just trying not to indict someone in advance of the facts. Also, it's one thing to off yourself (as a depressive might) -- and quite another to take 149 innocent lives in the process. Which says "psychotic break" -- quite distinct from doing away with yourself.

[kehleyr]

Completely agree with you!

[kehleyr]

I just think it's a bit scary that they have reported this as truth so fast after the incident. Sure the evidence of hearing the pilot banging on the door and the co-pilot calmly breathing and preventing him from entering... as well as him changing the altitude is suggesting that they crashed in the hands of the co-pilot. But WHY he did it? Well... not sure we will ever know that.

[devifemme]

We WON'T, sadly -- though not, as I commented above, for lack of "official" leaks. The transcript in Sunday's Bild newspaper certainly fits that category -- as do reports of prosecutors' unhappiness at that leak in particular.

Then there's tons of shrink-speak in the media, gleaned from hundreds of semi-qualified, semi-informed professionals* around the world. One French paper today summed up: "Andreas Lubitz suffered from 'generalized anxiety disorder,' and from severe depression in the past, Le Parisien newspaper reports..."

____________
* Who, of course, have to be protected since they're ALL in breech of their professional standards... either they speak despite inadequate information (bad) or they ARE close to the players, and nonetheless betray their relationship (worse).

[kehleyr]

Yeah I've been following CNN a bit and I've heard all these "leaks". Just sad.

[devifemme]

To me, the sad part is that Lubitz and other airline personnel ought to have appropriate protection of their privacy. The airlines must be careful to look into peculiar things that are brought to their attention, on the one hand, and to respect their employees' desire not to be snooped on unjustifiably, on the other. This whole thing is at best fragile. Anyway, when something has gone wrong, the leaks serve to substantiate airlines' exercising due dilligence...

[khall]

He could have just had a seizure too. Or froze in a panic. Or been intending to 'save' the plane at the last second and then screwed up. Speculation is just speculation. The media should reflect that in these stories, but they don't even maintain that level of integrity any more.

K.

[devifemme]

I quite agree about the media's integrity. But I WAS taken aback today by Lufthansa belatedly admitting that they "knew" their guy had a "depression episode" which interrupted his flight training. (The TV news compared this startling admission to several blatant lies they'd told earlier...)

[khall]

Yeah, because that matters. I have had depressive episodes too. I am probably bipolar. Or meglomaniac, as I like to call it. Because then it sounds like you're enjoying it. More. What people who struggle with depression really need is more prejudice and barriers, like when the airlines now make anybody with depression unable to be a pilot, or something. Which just means anyone who does, especially the dangerous ones, will hide it.

K>

[devifemme]

I agree, K -- it certainly makes things more difficult for those with depression to be open about it. And I suspect there was something like a "psychotic break" NOT stemming from his depression.