Comments on: I couldn’t agree less with this piece in The Guardian https://daphnecaruanagalizia.com/2015/03/i-couldnt-agree-less-with-this-piece-in-the-guardian/ Daphne Caruana Galizia is a journalist working in Malta. Sat, 28 Mar 2015 13:08:00 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 By: Lara https://daphnecaruanagalizia.com/2015/03/i-couldnt-agree-less-with-this-piece-in-the-guardian/#comment-3036252 Sat, 28 Mar 2015 13:08:00 +0000 http://daphnecaruanagalizia.com/?p=61508#comment-3036252 In reply to Tarzan.

The airline did not seem to see the need of implementing the two crew cockpit rule.

The airline apparently did not see the need to do regular psychological checks on its pilots and co-pilots even though piloting is a high stress job.

Stringent medical data protection laws in Germany being quoted give the impression that being a danger to others is not deemed a reportable condition.

I would understand the captain not being aware of what his co-pilot was about to do but a person with serious mental health problems, as this person certainly had, would not be able to keep up appearances with his girlfriend and parents, who he seemed to live with on and off.

Making excuses will only get more poeple killed.

]]> By: Lara https://daphnecaruanagalizia.com/2015/03/i-couldnt-agree-less-with-this-piece-in-the-guardian/#comment-3036249 Sat, 28 Mar 2015 12:53:00 +0000 http://daphnecaruanagalizia.com/?p=61508#comment-3036249 ”In reality it is very difficult, practically impossible, to tell the difference between a person going through a bad patch and one who is actually suffering from psychological problems.”

This is what many non-professionals think and why many state that they are depressed as easily as if they are saying they are thirsty or hungry. In reality being sad after an event is totally different to suffering from depression, your attitude to yourself and others is different and your perspective is different. Insight is also not the same. The two should not be confused.

]]> By: Daphne Caruana Galizia https://daphnecaruanagalizia.com/2015/03/i-couldnt-agree-less-with-this-piece-in-the-guardian/#comment-3036232 Sat, 28 Mar 2015 09:52:00 +0000 http://daphnecaruanagalizia.com/?p=61508#comment-3036232 Debilitating. Mental illness kept under control with medication remains mental illness. A person with mental illness kept under control by medication is NOT the same as everyone else. I gave a simplistic description because this is a general blog and not a medical blog for the medical profession or for sufferers of depression. It doesn’t mean that I don’t know exactly what I am talking about.

]]> By: Tarzan https://daphnecaruanagalizia.com/2015/03/i-couldnt-agree-less-with-this-piece-in-the-guardian/#comment-3036227 Fri, 27 Mar 2015 23:14:00 +0000 http://daphnecaruanagalizia.com/?p=61508#comment-3036227 In reply to J. Smith.

We need to be fair on the airline. Now the attention of the whole world, including that of expert investigators, is focused on the personal life and medical history of this single pilot.

So now we know so many more details that obviously were not available to the airline before.

A few days ago he was just one young pilot out of hundreds employed by Lufthansa.

One can argue that before, there were some clues that things were not completely normal with this man. But then, in real life most things are not completely normal.

As far as what has been made public, not even his friends or family or doctors or his flight captain had a premonition of what he was about to do.

]]> By: Daphne Caruana Galizia https://daphnecaruanagalizia.com/2015/03/i-couldnt-agree-less-with-this-piece-in-the-guardian/#comment-3036226 Fri, 27 Mar 2015 22:44:00 +0000 http://daphnecaruanagalizia.com/?p=61508#comment-3036226 It’s 2015: depressed people and those who live with them know that they need medical care. Whether they want to get it is another matter.

]]> By: Daphne Caruana Galizia https://daphnecaruanagalizia.com/2015/03/i-couldnt-agree-less-with-this-piece-in-the-guardian/#comment-3036218 Fri, 27 Mar 2015 21:51:00 +0000 http://daphnecaruanagalizia.com/?p=61508#comment-3036218 It most definitely does. Depression does not make you go out with a knife or gun and systematically cut down 150 people, one after the other, in a way that you are forced to confront what you are doing, physically hit the other person and so on.

But it does make you completely impervious to 150 human beings who happen to be sitting in the plane behind you as you drive it into a mountainside.

I thought understanding of human behaviour was instinctive. I am always surprised to find that it is learned on the basis of natural perceptiveness.

]]> By: k. pace https://daphnecaruanagalizia.com/2015/03/i-couldnt-agree-less-with-this-piece-in-the-guardian/#comment-3036186 Fri, 27 Mar 2015 16:56:00 +0000 http://daphnecaruanagalizia.com/?p=61508#comment-3036186 Shouldn’t it be built into the system that the doctor, the moment he certifies the pilot sick, informs the flying company that the pilot is not fit enough to fly ?

]]> By: Liberal https://daphnecaruanagalizia.com/2015/03/i-couldnt-agree-less-with-this-piece-in-the-guardian/#comment-3036184 Fri, 27 Mar 2015 16:52:00 +0000 http://daphnecaruanagalizia.com/?p=61508#comment-3036184 I couldn’t agree with you more.

]]> By: J. Smith https://daphnecaruanagalizia.com/2015/03/i-couldnt-agree-less-with-this-piece-in-the-guardian/#comment-3036176 Fri, 27 Mar 2015 16:22:00 +0000 http://daphnecaruanagalizia.com/?p=61508#comment-3036176 I blame the airline for employing a pilot with a history of chronic depression in his youth.

Other mental illnesses might have been hiding behind his “chronic depression”. He might have been misdiagnosed for all I know.

Mental illness is such a complicated field. It’s not like you can take a blood test and diagnose someone as bipolar.

You can blame the fellow and his illness for as long as you like, but the thing is… he shouldn’t have been there to start with.

]]> By: C Mangion https://daphnecaruanagalizia.com/2015/03/i-couldnt-agree-less-with-this-piece-in-the-guardian/#comment-3036171 Fri, 27 Mar 2015 16:02:00 +0000 http://daphnecaruanagalizia.com/?p=61508#comment-3036171 Just having the same argument. Fact of the matter, nothing was wrong with the plane. Deliberate – depressed or not.

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