So The Co-Pilot Went Crazy, Eh?

A recent report about an Air Canada co-pilot suffering a nervous breakdown during a flight from Toronto to London made me a little concerned. My understanding is that many airlines have routine psychological exams to ensure that pilots who are inclined towards taking their lives and the lives of their passengers with them never make it to the cockpit, but incidents like these and the case of EgyptAir Flight 990 in 1999 seem to indicate that there are still holes in the net.

What can you do? Very little, I suppose. As you board a plane, you're generally greeted by the flight attendants while the pilots are tucked away in the cockpit running their tests. It's not until the plane lands and you deboard that you are bid a kind farewell by the pilots. I always tend to give a genuine "thank you" to the pilots as I exit, which if I had more time, might be more fully described as "thanks for flying the plane competently and not giving in to to any urge to try any acrobatic maneuvers."

What's interesting in the Air Canada incident is that they had a real Airplane! (the classic movie) moment when the flight attendants went around asking passengers whether anyone was qualified to fly a plane. I wonder if I would have resisted the urge to answer, "I flew single engine fighters in the Air Force, but this plane has four engines. It's an entirely different kind of flying - altogether."