I don't care much for flying. I don't mind telling you. Is there really any wonder, when we see what happens when things go bad? Really bad. I won't even try to relate a view of what I think the families of the victims of Germanwings flight 4U9525 might be going through. I just think back to the first time I stepped onto a plane. It looked rather small, sitting there, waiting for us to board. It became a lot bigger as I walked toward it - and I remember wondering how such a thing could even get off the tarmac. In all this I was, I believe, trying to convince myself that my fear was irrational. while trying to be reminded of the many 'fear of flying' tips I had watched on YouTube.
Statistically speaking, flying is the 'safest way to travel'. And that's a well quoted cliche for sure. We all know it. By studying the occurrence of any incident over a period of time, it is thought we can assess to some degree how safe (or unsafe) a future situation might be, calculate the chances of it going wrong. Well, that's all good if the space time continuum actually runs in line with human assessment. Who's to say it does? We get statements along the lines of: 'You've got more chance of being murdered than going down in a plane.' This is rounded off with a guess at the odds, which are so many million to one in our favour. I think it's that statistical factor that often provides enough courage to actually trust ourselves to that long tube of fuel filled metal with wings attached.
Those comforting odds don't mean a jot to those bereaved families today.
What killed all those men. women and children, was not a coin toss in a cosmic lottery, or an act of a capricious god. It was a man. A man whose mind was running along a path most of us will never be able to comprehend. A man who, for whatever reason, had decided it was his day to die, and to do it in a way that would mark him in infamy. The detachment you might feel watching a horror movie, populated with the strange and deranged, can never apply here. This was another real life horror, stranger than fiction, where the tragic destiny of one individual dragged 150 innocent lives into the abyss with him. His choice. Not God's, or unexplained threads of serendipity. It was he who decided fate that day.
That's the power and responsibility we all have. We are fallible. Now that tragedy has been fully played out, dead co-pilot Andreas Lubitz's life is becoming an open book. The flaws in the aircraft's cockpit procedure are being brought to light. Yes, we're very good at being wise after the event. Still, I'll bet most people boarding that doomed flight didn't sweat it the way I would have done, looking to see if the pilot appeared to be in good health, checking to see if the plane was much better than an old bucket, trying to build up my trust in the event about to unfold.
Maybe I'm one of the irrational. But that's what fear does for you. Events like this do little to boost my trust in impressive statistics. The plane was mechanically sound that day, which will be reassuring for Germanwings and the millions who fly regularly. There is however, no comfort for the families of those slain, who are left bereft, wondering how this disturbed man managed to gain control of an aeroplane. Lubitz clearly covered his aberrant mental state well enough to be able to avoid serious scrutiny - and yet, one wonders how long he'd lived alone in his own spiralling universe. It was enough time to finally run his sanity over the edge, to throw a metaphorical spanner into the long shot statistics we tend to put so much blind faith in.
You see. when we sit and think about randomness, there's really no way to rationalise it. Such long odds on our side almost suggest we've next to no chance of being involved in such a tragic event. That may turn out to be arrogant assumption on our part - but we do have to have some hope. Aviation research and development has swung the confidence balance so far in our favour that it's like having a pile of bricks on one side of the scale, compared to a feather on the other. Isn't it reassuring? Should be. However, there's always that nagging voice, reminding me at least, of an unknown factor; on this occasion the free will of a person who is planning some terrible act.
Time and destiny is a far more complex matter than we might think. The fact remains, most busy people don't waste time considering the fragility of their own existence. It's obvious we have to take reasonable risks if we want to live any quality of life at all. People expect to get off a plane at the other end of the journey - and nearly always do. In this case, a man living in extreme mental torment had remained locked in his own world, while life carried on its merry way. Lubitz's failing mind formulated a dark intention, which nobody detected until it was too late.
The possible phobics who fly can often be seen as irrational. Take Richard Matheson's famous story, 'Nightmare at 20,000 feet'. It is a real study of flying phobia and a man who looks to be on the edge of insanity, yet in truth is the only one aware of the real danger threatening the aircraft in which he travels. It is his 'irrational' awareness of his surroundings makes him more likely to see the problems - and amplify them to panic levels. That's not to say we should actually seek to feel nervous about getting on a plane. If you are that way inclined, it's going to be a constant battle to quell such fear anyway. Stories like the Germanwings tragedy do little to assuage any feelings of trepidation. Maybe it's useful to remember just how many aircraft are in the air at any given time; compare this with the number of major incidents, to give extra credence to those long shot chance values.
It's ironic that a safeguard to prevent a terrorist getting into the aircraft cockpit, prevented the captain getting back in after Lubitz had locked him out. It is difficult to imagine the terror inside that cabin as passengers desperately watched the man try to break the door down so he could regain control. It is, unfortunately, another episode of real life horror we dare not think about. Yet, we must, for this terrible darkness, be it right or wrong, is part of the mechanics of the world. Call it an act of evil, a cruel injustice, anything that will give even a suggestion of purpose. There is no glib answer or clever reasoning to answer this one. Some lessons will be learned from this tragedy for sure. The world will carry on. And we will all take life's acceptable risks, because to have any quality living at all, that's what we have to do.
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