New data obtained from the NTSB suggests the crash of a China Eastern Boeing 737 in China that killed 132 people in March of 2022 was pilot suicide. The data, reportedly from a Freedom of Information Act request and first reported by CNN, says the fuel cutoff switches were manually switched to the off position and there was evidence that the two pilots fought over the controls as one of them pushed the aircraft into a vertical dive that ended in a crash in the city of Wuzhou. The plane was on a scheduled flight from Kunming to Guangzhou.
Before the smoke had cleared, there was speculation the crash was deliberate, but Chinese officials never reached that conclusion in any of their investigations even though they would have had access to the NTSB reports. As late as 2024, the Chinese said they could not find any anomalies with the crew or the plane. While the identity of the pilot who may have killed the engines and pushed the nose down has not been released, the 59-year-old first officer had recently been demoted from the left seat.
I suspect this is the same reason why the Indian authority does not release the accident report on the Air India 787 that crashed immediately after takeoff. Pilot suicide is rampant in the third world country
“Pilot suicide is rampant in the third world country”
That is a strong statement. Would you have something to support it?
Just to get this out, China is not a third world country, but a quick search revealed:
China (2022) (Not third world)
Malaysia (2014) (suspected)
Mozambique (2013)
Egypt (1999)
Indonesia (1997)
Then there is
GermanWings (2015) (not third world)
Out of the six suspected/known to be pilot suicide, only 3 would be considered “third world” oriented.
Listen, even one is bad, but the term rampant is hyperbole. The question sitting out there is, Why?
This article takes a look at pilot suicide and is a good read. One point made that I found telling:
The regulations are very strict on medicals and in a way, can backfire since pilots will hide issues that may ground them permanently, even if treatable.
After the Germanwings crash I believe there was a requirement put in place that a pilot cannot be alone in the cockpit (in EU?, US?) and even these few accidents make a valid point to not even think of single pilot commercial flights (121). In the past two years we had a couple of pilots have medical issuers where the second pilot had to take over. Even though I’ve worked in IT for 47 years, I would not trust AI as primary in the cockpit.
Apparently 2 pilots in the cockpit wasn’t enough to stop this 737 crash either. Just wait til there are no pilots in the cockpits and just drone operators with no skin in the game flying commercial airliners.
Truth. Thee is no perfect system, but I don’t see a need to deconstruct a decent working model.
I am reminded of the UPS flight where a jump seater tried to bash the heads of the pilots, almost got it done, but they fought back.
Then the jump seater that tried to flip the fuel cutoff switches (Alaska Air?) and was stopped just in time by the pilots.
Maybe no jump seaters?
Still, I’d rather deal with imperfect humans then AI in the cockpit (or as you said, remote piloting, forget that!)
Single pilot has worked great for me almost 10,000 of my 19,000 hours and I don’t want a fight somebody in my cockpit.
So, 10,000 at least not as 121?
If the only thing you fly is GA or Biz jets, good on ya. There are valid reasons why two pilots sit in the front of a complex airliner carrying over 100 hundred passengers, and as I mentioned, at least one is incapacitation.
Having seen a few accident reviews, even with two pilots, if an arrogant asshat brow beats the other into accepting bad decisions, bad things happen. The second pilot is there to provide a check and balance to decisions/actions. Now just have arrogant asshat by himself saying “I can get this baby in, screw minimums” really does not improve safety.
Hopefully you are healthy. There have been a few stories about single pilot flights with unskilled passengers and they were lucky to survive when the pilot went out. I like what Garmin did with the big red button in some planes as a way to get people down safe *if* the pilot goes lights out. I just don’t trust it with a 767 or Airbus 320.
As I said, no system is perfect and until we reach singularity, then it won’t matter anyway, I won’t trust a computer and I’ll still want two pilots up in front even with that Caravan between Maui and Molaki.
You make good points about incapacitation Justin and now that the vaccines have been rolled out, we are seeing it much more often in young and otherwise healthy men. And besides that, a big airplane needs another set of eyes to watch the right side of the airplane at intersections and push back, reach circuit breakers and keep everything running, liaison with cabin crew, etc.
No drones for me either.
Having been on both sides, I can tell you that single pilot is not for everyone. One single pilot medevac operation I was involved with hired an ex American captain to fly a King Air and right after takeoff he called for the gear up and waited for the examiner to make the radio calls and get the ATIS for a nearby destination. The examiner had to explain to him that those would now be his jobs and duties as well and that there would be no copilot to help. This Captain did not workout in the single pilot environment.
People can say that everything is fine and normal and that 2 pilots is safer than 1 pilot all they want, but the fact is that times have changed. It’s important to keep up with what is happening in society for our own safety if nothing else. 40 years ago every other pilot(50% or more) was not losing his children, his house, his car, his life savings and everything else he has in divorce court to some feminist. Anyone who believes that losing all hope in the entire system from a man hating judiciary doesn’t or shouldn’t affect pilots is delusional and needs some serious pain and stress in their life to snap them back into reality. Legal problems and family problems are major distractions that don’t go away when the Pilot walks into the cockpit.
Myvife is from China.
She say China know.
China will no say.
All China pilot perfect.
China will say America-made airplane ploblem.