Amokflug
This article describes an aviation disaster in which flight crewmember(s) or passenger(s) deliberately crash or attempt to crash a plane as a way to kill themselves as well as passengers on board or other persons on the ground. This is sometimes described as a murder-suicide.[1] It is suspected as being a possible cause of the crashes of several commercial flights. Generally, it is difficult for crash investigators to determine the motives of the pilots, since they sometimes act deliberately to turn off recording devices or otherwise hinder future investigations.[2] As a result, pilot suicide is often only a theory about why some aircraft disasters happened, and can be difficult to prove with certainty.[3] [4]
In the case of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 which disappeared from radar in 2014, pilot suicide is only one of a number of theories explaining the disappearance.[5] [6] In the case of the crash of Germanwings Flight 9525 into a mountain, preliminary findings suggest that a co-pilot locked the other pilot out of the cockpit, and then deliberately flew the plane into the French Alps.[7] There is usually confusion about whether such suicides are acts of terrorism.[8] [9]
List of aircraft disasters in which suicide is suspected
Legend :
Crash date | Flight | Fatalities | Theories | References |
---|---|---|---|---|
Vorlage:Date | Pacific Air Lines Flight 773 | 44 | Murder–suicide by a passenger | [10] |
Vorlage:Date | Japan Airlines Flight 350 | 24 | Pilot engaged number 2 and 3 engines' thrust-reversers in flight. The first officer and flight engineer were able to partially regain control. | [11] |
Vorlage:Date | Pacific Southwest Airlines Flight 1771 | 43 | Murder–suicide by a passenger, a disgruntled former employee of the airline | [12] |
Vorlage:Date | Federal Express Flight 705 | 0 | Crash narrowly avoided after struggle | [13] |
Vorlage:Date | Royal Air Maroc Flight 630 | 44 | Crashed intentionally. Disputed by flight union | [14] [15] |
Vorlage:Date | SilkAir Flight 185 | 104 | Pilot crashed plane (disputed) | [16] |
Vorlage:Date | 1999 Air Botswana incident | 1 | Pilot commandeered and then crashed an Air Botswana plane into a group of aircraft at Sir Seretse Khama International Airport in Gaborone, Botswana | [17] |
Vorlage:Date | EgyptAir Flight 990 | 217 | First Officer crashed plane (disputed) | [18] |
Vorlage:Date | American Airlines Flight 11 | 87 passengers and crew, 5 hijackers, about 1,600 on the ground | Plane hijacked and crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center by hijackers as part of the September 11, 2001 attacks. | [19] |
Vorlage:Date | United Airlines Flight 175 | 60 passengers and crew, 5 hijackers, about 900 on the ground | Plane hijacked and crashed into the South Tower of the World Trade Center by hijackers as part of the September 11, 2001 attacks. | [19] |
Vorlage:Date | American Airlines Flight 77 | 57 passengers and crew, 5 hijackers, 125 on the ground | Plane hijacked and crashed into the Pentagon by hijackers as part of the September 11, 2001 attacks. | [19] |
Vorlage:Date | United Airlines Flight 93 | 40 passengers and crew, 4 hijackers | Plane hijacked as part of the September 11, 2001 attacks. Passengers revolted against the hijackers, and the plane crashed in Stonycreek Township, Pennsylvania. Although the plane crashed with the death of all aboard, the passengers prevented the hijackers from reaching their target for another suicide attack (the target is thought to be the White House or the Capitol Building.) | [19] |
Vorlage:Date | LAM TM-470 | 33 | Pilot intentionally crashed jet | [14] |
Vorlage:Date | Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 | 239 | Pilot suicide a possibility | [20] |
Vorlage:Date | Germanwings Flight 9525 | 150 | First Officer locked Captain out then crashed plane (theory) | [21] [22] |
See also
References
External links
- Deliberate acts: 5 cases of pilots intentionally crashing
- List of aircraft accidents and incidents intentionally caused by pilots
- ↑ Charles Bremner (Paris), March 26, 2015, The Times, Locked door boosts pilot suicide theory, Retrieved March 26, 2015
- ↑ RICHARD LLOYD PARRY, 16 December 2000, The Independent, Singaporean air crash that killed 104 was suicide by pilot, say investigators, Retrieved March 26, 2015, "...An airliner which crashed into an Indonesian swamp, killing all 104 people on board, was an apparent suicide attempt by the pilot, ... the cockpit voice and data recorders had been switched off half a minute before the plane began its descent."
- ↑ Toby Young, March 16th, 2014, The Telegraph, Could a four-year-old thriller unlock the mystery of flight MH370? , Retrieved March 26, 2015, "...If this was a case of "suicide-by-pilot", why do we still know so little about the motive? I..."
- ↑ 31 March 2014, The Guardian, MH370: authorities release new account of pilot's final words: Malaysia's civil aviation authority say pilot's final words heard by air traffic control were 'goodnight Malaysian three seven zero', Retrieved March 26, 2015, "...Malaysia says the plane, which disappeared less than an hour into its flight, was likely to have been diverted deliberately far off course. Investigators have determined no apparent motive or other red flags among the 227 passengers or the 12 crew. ..."
- ↑ IANS London, September 15, 2014, The Business Standard, Was MH370 plane crash actually suicide by pilot?, Retrieved March 26, 2015, "...The pilot of the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 killed himself and passengers by switching off oxygen supply in what is the sixth example of such a suicide, an aviation expert has suggested...."
- ↑ http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-31736835
- ↑ 3/25/15, MSNBC quoting New York Times, NYT: Plane crash pilot locked out of cockpit, Retrieved March 26, 2015, "...Rachel Maddow reports breaking news of a report from the New York Times that a source tells them that the cockpit voice recorder indicates that one pilot was locked out of the cockpit when a Germanwings plane crashed in the French Alps. ..."
- ↑ Sara Noble, March 26, 2015, Independent Sentinel, Co-Pilot Deliberately Crashed Flight 9525, Retrieved March 26, 2015, "...Andreas Lubitz, pictured above, deliberately killed himself and 154 other... deliberately put into a deliberate dive by the co-pilot before the crash....It’s not being called an act of terror or of suicide by pilot. It’s a different act of terror... Lubitz had no obvious terror ties..."
- ↑ http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/germanwings-crash-suicide-and-mass-murder-by-copilot-10135713.html
- ↑ http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19640507-0 Aviation Safety Net Criminal Occurrence description]
- ↑ Stokes, Henry Scott. "Cockpit Fight Reported on Jet That Crashed in Tokyo," The New York Times . 14 February 1982. Retrieved 24 June 2011.
- ↑ Aviation Safety Net Criminal Occurrence description
- ↑ 7 April 1994 - Fedex 705.
- ↑ a b 2015,Aviation Safety News, List of aircraft accidents caused by pilot suicide, Retrieved March 26, 2015
- ↑ "Crash that killed 44 was pilot suicide." Associated Press at the Altus Times . Thursday 25 August 1994. p. 14. Retrieved on 5 November 2013.
- ↑ Vorlage:Cite episode
- ↑ World: Africa Suicide pilot destroys Air Botswana fleet. 11. Oktober 1999, abgerufen am 26. März 2015. Fehler bei Vorlage * Parametername unbekannt (Vorlage:Cite web): "1"
- ↑ Michael Ellison: US and Egypt split on fatal plane crash In: The Guardian , 9 June 2000. Abgerufen im 1 May 2011
- ↑ a b c d 'We Have Some Planes'. National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, Juli 2004, archiviert vom Original am 11. Mai 2008; abgerufen am 25. Mai 2008. Fehler bei Vorlage * Parametername unbekannt (Vorlage:Cite web): "deadurl"
- ↑ Keith Bradsher: Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 One Year Later: A Reporter’s Notebook In: The New York Times , 10 March 2015. Abgerufen im 26 March 2015
- ↑ Germanwings Plane Crash Investigation. In: Guardian.com. 26. März 2015, abgerufen am 26. März 2015.
- ↑ Germanwings Flight 4U9525: Co-pilot put plane into descent, prosecutor says. In: cbc.ca. 26. März 2015, abgerufen am 26. März 2015.