TIMELINE: Aircraft-assisted suicides

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A pilot purposely bringing down a plane is a frightening reality that has unfortunately happened more than once.

Officials have recently said that the co-pilot of Germanwings Flight 9525 deliberately crashed the plane that killed 150 people after falling into the French Alps on Tuesday.

From 2003 to 2012 there were almost 3,000 fatal aviation accidents in the United States and eight of them were aircraft-assisted suicides, as reported by the National Transportation Safety Board.

In all of the suicides the pilots were men and the median age was 46 years old. The pilot was the sole occupant in the cockpit in seven of the eight suicides.

Here are a few of the crashes over the years:

  • 2013
    Mozambique Airlines crashed in Bwabwata National Park, Namibia.
    33 people killed.
    Report revealed that minutes before the crash the first officer left the cockpit for the lavatory and only the captain remained in the Flight Deck. The aircraft then commenced a sudden descent. The captain was 49 years old.
  • 1999
    EgyptAir Flight 990, Boeing 767-366ER crashed into the Atlantic Ocean, 60 miles south of Nantucket, Massachusetts.
    217 people killed.
    Report states that co-pilot Gamil al-Batouti had muttered “I rely on God,” an Arabic phrase often used moments before death when he was alone in the cockpit. The captain returned saying, “What is this? What is this?” and repeatedly stated “pull with me,” after the plane started its drop. The co-pilot was 59 years old.
  • 1997
    Silk Air Flight 185 crashed into Musi River in Palembang, Indonesia.
    104 people killed.
    The report states that there was no evidence of any system failures and no mechanical failures so the airplane was likely responding to flight control inputs from the cockpit. The cockpit voice recorder had been cut off. The report also says that the Pilot in command was involved in stock-trading activities and “experiencing significant financial difficulties.” The pilot in command was 41 years old.
  • 1994
    Royal Air Maroc flight airplane crashed in Atlas Mountains.
    44 people killed.
    Ten minutes after take off the plane climbed 16,000 feet before falling to a steep drive and crash. A Kuwaiti prince and his wife were on the plane. An examination of the plane showed that the pilot “disconnected the automatic pilot and directed the aircraft towards the ground, but the Moroccan Pilot’s Union denied this saying the pilot would not have deliberately done this.

 

Aircraft-Assisted Pilot Suicides

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