Why Someone Would Crash a Plane

You know about this. On Tuesday, the Germanwings Flight 4U 9525 crashed into the French alps. The co-pilot, Andreas Lubitz, locked the pilot out of the flight-deck and drove the plane down into the mountains killing 150 people including himself. Andreas Lubitz had depression. 

Whenever a person commits mass-murder, naturally the first thing everyone asks is: “Why? Why would someone do something like that?” There is never a definitive answer, but in this case: I think I can suggest one.

It goes without saying that if you must end your life, you shouldn’t bring others with you. It also goes without saying that you shouldn’t end your life to begin with. We have no idea what happens after death, but nothing is worth trying to find out.

Of course, I say all this whilst in an OK mood. I don’t take medication, and whilst I’m feeling incredibly tired and somewhat anxious, my mood’s currently stable.  It’s been fluctuating recently due to various circumstances in my life, but it’s been a while since I’ve hit rock bottom.

If you haven’t hit rock bottom, then a mere blog post cannot do it justice. George Orwell wrote in Nineteen Eighty Four that: “Of pain you could wish only one thing: that it should stop. In the face of pain there are no heroes.” Orwell was referring to physical torture, but the same applies to mental torment. In fact, mental torment is worse because ultimately it’s the mind that controls the body. The body is a plane. The mind is the pilot. The plane can malfunction and take the pilot with it, but the pilot is an independent vessel that can singlehandedly bring the whole thing down.  

When you find yourself firmly within the jaws of depression, there is nothing else. There are no friends or family. There is only a scream, a blood-curdling voice begging for the pain to stop. That sound is life as you know it, and you want it to stop by any means necessary. If it means killing yourself, if it means killing your friend, if it means killing everyone in the world. It must stop.

This isn’t necessarily the precise reason why Andreas Lubitz crashed Flight 4U 952, but it’s one reason. And if it’s not the true reason, then it’s still the reason why millions every year commit suicide – often taking others with them.