Originally Posted by JDiver

Some acts of suicide, particularly male suicide, can be impulsive. I've years in the field (including working with a well-known law enforcement agency in the U.S. experiencing a suicide "surge" to a rate of approximately 750/100,000/year - when the regional norm was perhaps 15/100,000 p.a.) and have seen this. Take a younger man with some morbid fascinations or fantasies, add some very high stressors he feels are unsolvable, a highly lethal weapon at hand with immediate, irreversible results or means and you have a firearm, a Golden Gate Bridge - or an A320.

Unfortunately, there is no such thing as 100% safety, 100% screening. We live with, and manage, our risks every day. The risks of this kind of occurrence is truly infinitesimally small, yet it appears to have happened - more than once - and the survivors are in need of consoling and our respect.

Let's do that by not getting too lurid in our descriptions, too wild with our theorizing, and refraining from posting what might be upsetting to survivors (relatives, friends, etc. of the dead passengers). Having worked with survivors of the deaths and suicides of others, let's show some awareness and compassion for these many affected apparently by the incredibly deadly act of First Officer Andreas L., 28.