Things Noticeable this week

[SanteeFats]

Originally Posted by sydney1

The only trouble is Scoundrel, who did murder Meredith Kirchner, a beautiful young lady in her prime of life, who it seems to me is somehow not as important or newsworthy as Knox/Sollecito. Those two individuals know a lot more than they're letting on. The whole affair stinks.

Rudy Guede is serving 16 years in the murder. Did he do it? I don't know.
Was there so one else involved could be.

[DTravel]

Originally Posted by JJ3027

Has any ... expert ... mentioned why someone who wants to die, decides to take 150 people with them? I mean, a bottle of asprin, or chuggin' a gallon of bleach would do the trick. Why kill these poor souls and wreck an airplane? I haven't read anything mentioned about this in the US news, has it come up in Europe?

From what I've read suicide is more a cry for help than anything else many times. Yes, I know that makes no logical sense but if you are in enough emotional pain to make a suicide attempt you're not thinking logically. So it can be one or more of many things. Takings others with you can be comforting, you're not "alone"; it can be a louder, bigger statement or cry of pain; you can simply not think of them as people, if you think of them at all, crashing the plane or bus or whatever mass casualty method you use just happened to be handy or available when the surge of pain came.

Suicide is an extremely selfish act. You don't care about anyone else, so concern about passengers is simply not part of the thinking.

[9876543210]

Nobody1,

Originally Posted by Nobody1

Psychological examinations are nice, you know. Unfortunately, that's not the heart of the matter. Most professions have reached a pathological level of exploitation. This is especially true for low-cost airlines like Germanwings.

In the end, we are just a cost factor in a corporate balance sheet. Financial interests of shareholders are more important than the health and wellbeing of workers, employees or customers. Exactly this has to change. No more and no less.

Exactly! And this has been a long time coming.

Back in the late 70's and early 80's I was seriously considering becoming an airline pilot. Back then it was a really good job. If you worked hard you could always find a job that would start to pay off all that training and work your way up the ladder.

And then along came Ronnie Reagan and the whole industry changed. He first busted the ATC union and then started letting all his good rich buddies start taking advantage of their workers. The writing on the wall became pretty clear.

There were five of us that started flying at about the same time with the same objective. None of us stayed with it. Still see a couple of those guys and none of them are disappointed in not staying with it.

Nowadays, you can have thousands of hours in type and still be making only $20+k annually. Thats not close to enough to pay back your student costs. Saw something a while ago where pilots for these cheap companies are forced to rent apartments in different cities along with 10 to 20 other pilots. All they get for that is a single bed and a roof.

Each to their own, of course, but I'd never recommend anyone going into that profession any longer. Pilots used to earn a lot of respect, maybe they get a bit of that, but very little money any more.

Maybe things will start to change a bit now.

[TheBare]

Maybe things will start to change a bit now.

With self driving vehicles a reality I'm sure they will!

[scoundrel]

Originally Posted by 9876543210

Nobody1,

Exactly! And this has been a long time coming.

Back in the late 70's and early 80's I was seriously considering becoming an airline pilot. Back then it was a really good job. If you worked hard you could always find a job that would start to pay off all that training and work your way up the ladder.

And then along came Ronnie Reagan and the whole industry changed. He first busted the ATC union and then started letting all his good rich buddies start taking advantage of their workers. The writing on the wall became pretty clear.

There were five of us that started flying at about the same time with the same objective. None of us stayed with it. Still see a couple of those guys and none of them are disappointed in not staying with it.

Nowadays, you can have thousands of hours in type and still be making only $20+k annually. Thats not close to enough to pay back your student costs. Saw something a while ago where pilots for these cheap companies are forced to rent apartments in different cities along with 10 to 20 other pilots. All they get for that is a single bed and a roof.

Each to their own, of course, but I'd never recommend anyone going into that profession any longer. Pilots used to earn a lot of respect, maybe they get a bit of that, but very little money any more.

Maybe things will start to change a bit now.

I'm a bit torn on that one. The world doesn't owe anyone a living; we must all do our best with such talent as we have, make the best of our luck and try to get by. I don't know what the terms and conditions are for airline pilots these days as a general thing; but I do know it varies between airlines.

Aeroflot pilots get a raw deal, this I have seen in documentaries, but they do seem to remain professional about it and don't stuff aeroplanes full of innocent passengers into mountains. In fact, I recollect one Aeroflot pilot in an interview explaining that he converted to Christianity after being a life-long Communist and athiest because when he was shut out by fog at Archangelsk, no other clear airfield, fuel about to run out and a plane full of passengers, he prayed. For himself he would have been ashamed to pray, having denied God all his life, but for the sake of his passengers he swallowed his pride and he prayed; and for whatever reason, the fog lifted for just a few minutes and he landed safely just before the fog came in again.

To me, the moral of that story is that he was a true professional who knew his duty was to his passengers and not to himself when he was flying the plane. He would have gone unrepentent to Hell, defying God with his last breath; but he would never do that to his passengers.

Everything you say about corporate greed and naughty capitalism may be true. 9876543210 and Nobody1 (I have grave reservations BTW but I'm not saying there's no truth in it); but it excuses nothing. Suicide is a terrible sin unless you are opting out of a ghastly terminal illness, in which case I would totally support your decision. It causes a double grief to the people you leave behind; so often people who think nobody loves them are quite wrong. I do have sympathy for a man suffering from mental illness such as extreme depression. I have known depression too; I bet most of us have, even though most of us (myself too) have never asked for help. Depression isn't always the result of an illness; it can also be a very sane and rational response to the sheer shitness of life, and it is here where what you say about the exploitative and bullying conduct of airlines as employers is on point. But to elect to take 150 other people with you is inexcuseable. The crime is so extreme that I would investigate this crash with even greater care to make absolutely sure there's no chance that this man is innocent; to be innocent and yet be remembered as guilty of such a thing as this would be too horrible for words.

[beutelwolf]

Originally Posted by scoundrel

I'm a bit torn on that one. The world doesn't owe anyone a living; we must all do our best with such talent as we have, make the best of our luck and try to get by. I don't know what the terms and conditions are for airline pilots these days as a general thing; but I do know it varies between airlines.

I believe in the "if you pay peanuts you get monkeys" aphorism and I don't want a monkey to fly the plane I'm travelling in. Regarding industry conditions, I recall that Mr Sullenberger had a few choice words to say after his Hudson adventure.

Still, this financial issue is not directly related to this incident, except perhaps in the general theme that corporate greed can often undermine safety.

[Wendigo]

Originally Posted by scoundrel

The crime is so extreme that I would investigate this crash with even greater care to make absolutely sure there's no chance that this man is innocent; to be innocent and yet be remembered as guilty of such a thing as this would be too horrible for words.

Agreed if he did decide to take his own life and in doing so not only killed another 150 people including children as well as wrecking the lives of countless friends and relatives then he deserves to be remembered solely as an evil selfish murdering bastard. Please let's not dumb this down with mental health issues. There were many places he could have turned to for help.
If he had issues and could not solve them and still wanted to take his own life then fine, but just his own life. By deciding to die by becoming a mass murderer to make his point he turned kamikaze and unless evidence is found to the contrary then he is no different to other mass murderers.

[Wendigo]

'Death threats' made against BBC's Tony Hall investigated
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-32103665

Perhaps the least tasteful reminder of how many of those who supported Jeremy Clarkson were just feeble minded idiots with no grasp of reality and wanted him given an everlasting get out of jail card.
It will now waste more Police time and resources and achieve absolutely nothing.

[Mal Hombre]

What's happened in this country ? You never used to hear about death threats,Now people threaten perfect strangers over the slightest thing.

[MrInBetween]

Originally Posted by Greenman

I hope when the forum is being maintained on 31st March that someone looks into why it takes 15-25 seconds and over a minute to load threads/sections, especially those of us who use Firefox and Pale Moon(its offshoot). They have both been recently updated yet the forum fails to load up pages/threads etc faster than the afore-mentioned time. It is incredibly frustrating having to wait so long-it is almost like being back in the dark days of dial-up. I know it is not my connection speed so I can only conclude it is still something to do with the forum. I hope this can be corrected for next week.

I use Firefox exclusively and I'm not getting anything like that. All those issues we were having before seem to have cleared up. Any other Firefox users having this problem?