Recently, over the years, many plane accidents have occurred. From the Malaysian plane accident, which disappeared, to the runway departure accident of an Asiana plane, diverse reasons for plane accidents have been given.
  The first plane accident, which occurred last year, was the Taiwan plane crash accident on February 4th. Signals stopped on the flight deck 4 minutes after takeoff and soon it crashed to the ground. Because of the accident, 31 people died, 145 people got injured, and 12 people disappeared. On March 5th, only a month after that accident, Delta Air Lines’s plane slipped on the runway and bumped into a fence and dozens of people were injured.
  Plane accidents occur for diverse reasons, but the most astonishing accident that happened recently was the intentional plane crash by a pilot. Because the accident was not caused by external factors, such as terrorism or bad weather, but by a pilot, whose job is to fly the plane safely to the destination, many people were shocked and felt nervous.
  On March 24th, a German Wings Airlines plane crashed down into the Alps of France while flying to Dusseldorf from Barcelona. 144 passengers and 6 crew members all died. The French prosecution announced the results of the voice recorder that, while the captain went to the bathroom, a co-pilot, Andreas Lubitz, locked the door of the flight deck and intentionally pressed the down button. Actually, Lubitz had depression when he was a trainee. Because of the accident, the world now has a pilot phobia. Surprisingly, this accident was not the only intentional plane accident.
  On February 9th, 1982, a Japanese plane crashed while it was landing and 24 people died. It was because of the captain. He intentionally operated a device named Thrust Reverser, which must not be used during flight. Later, the captain’s mental disease was announced and he was declared not guilty.
  There were pilots who committed suicide because of debts and discipline by the company. On December 19th, 1997, a B737 from Silk Airline crashed down into the Musi river of Indonesia. All 104 passengers died because of the accident. At that time, the pilot had a lot of debt and he committed suicide because of it. Also, there was another accident that happened because of a company’s punishment. On October 31st, 1999, a co-pilot of Egyptair tried to commit suicide to get revenge on the company. The pilot tried to save the plane, but the co-pilot turned off the engine and the plane just crashed to the ground. 217 people died in the accident.
  When a pilot decides to make an intentional accident, there is no way to prevent it. That’s why people are getting anxious about riding in a plane. To prevent it, the International Civil Aviation Organization(ICAO) made a rule that pilots should receive a medical check-up including a mental check. However, experts are saying that it can’t be the best plan. Moreover, Lubitz, who was a co-pilot of German Wings, had no problem in his mental check. Also, even though there is a mental check, it’s hard to check a pilot’s unexpected previous actions.
  In addition, there are some opinions that the door of the cockpit, which cannot open from the outside to prevent the hijacking by terrorists, must be changed and there should be at least 2 pilots in the cockpit. The last chairman, Jim Hall, from the National Transportation Safety Board(NTSB) of U.S.A., said, “I saw few pilots trying to crash a plane in a kamikaze way. Attaching a video recording system in the cockpit and having at least 2 pilots in the cockpit can prevent these accidents.”

By Seo Yeo-ryung

yr34@cbnu.ac.kr