Extreme suicide Why do others have to die?

Copilot apparently hid his mental illness

03/27/2015

The new findings on the cause of the A320 crash raises the public's question of what causes a person not only to kill himself, but also to bring 149 people to their deaths. The French prosecutor Brice Robin said after the evaluation of the records from the cockpit that the 27-year-old copilot Andreas L. had deliberately brought the plane to crash. The investigators could say little about his motives so far, but it is believed that he suffered from depression. In his apartment, according to media reports torn sick leave were found, which also concerned the flight day. He obviously hid his illness.

After the pilot left the cockpit briefly and the copilot left alone, this closed the door targeted and initiated the descent. The co-pilot did not react to the subsequent requests to open the door and incoming radio messages. From the actions of the copilot concludes the prosecutor, that here deliberately the destruction of the aircraft was brought about. It was apparently a suicide, from a terrorist background can not be expected.

What motivations drove the copilot?
The public reacted to the findings with horror, anger and helplessness. Even for experts, the motives of the 27-year-old copilot are difficult to explain. Overall, this form of suicide, in which even unknown people are taken to death, relatively rare, reports „World Online“ citing Manfred Wolfersdorf, Chief Physician of the Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatic Medicine of the Bayreuth District Hospital and Head of the Suicidology Unit of the DGPPN Society. In the trade magazine „neurotransmitters“ the expert has shown the differences between the different forms of suicide. The death of the copilot is therefore as so-called „Homicide-suicide“ in which category fall below four percent of all suicides.

No extended suicide
Delimitation is the homicide suicide, for example, against the so-called extended suicide, in which also fellow human beings have to give their lives. However, the latter usually involves people with close personal ties. According to the expert, altruistic motives are usually recognizable here. The perpetrators are convinced that in the interests of all concerned, the best decision to make, even if this seems completely outlandish to outsiders. For example, this could be the mother who, because of enormous debts, kills not only herself but also her children in order to spare them their lives in poverty and shame, explains Wolfersdorf. Even an old couple who kill each other as soon as it is clear that a partner will die from a serious illness fall into this category.

Determination to suicide
The situation is different for the copilot, however. He obviously did not have a close personal relationship with the passengers on the plane. In this form of suicide is „the motivation to kill others is often hostile to pathological paranoid“, reports Wolfersdorf. In addition, it is unlikely that the 27-year-old spontaneously developed the suicidal intent in the cockpit and acted impulsively. As a rule, those affected would go through three phases, first of all dealing with the concept of suicide and then using an ambivalent phase in which those affected want to continue living but no longer believe that they can do it, explains Wolfersdorf in an interview with the „South German newspaper“(SZ). Those affected feel extremely hopeless and only then they make the decision. In more than ninety percent of cases, the decision to commit suicide will be taken within one day, and in around fifty percent of cases, less than an hour will pass, according to Wolfersdorf „SZ“.

Were the mental problems recognizable?
Since Andreas L. probably had severe mental health problems, the question arises after the A320 crash, whether they should not have been recognized. The psychotherapist Stefan Leidig from Berlin commented on this „World Online“, that no indications of a possible risk of suicide can be derived from individual behaviors. „There must be several problem areas over a longer period of time“, so the psychotherapist. People who did not know the 27-year-old copilot very well might not notice any abnormalities. Nevertheless, it will be discussed to what extent adjustments to the previous aptitude test are required. As the aviation psychologist Reiner Kemmler explained to the „Hessian Broadcasting“, that in the pilot training the psychological situation of the pilots must be considered in more detail in the future. Educational and psychological flight instructors are also required for this. (Fp)