We Are All Flying on the Germanwings Plane
From a former Navy fighter pilot and a retired UAL Captain : We Are All
Flying on the Germanwings Plane ... Will We Just Wait? Crash Position
The pilot was locked out of the cockpit.
That phrase finally revealed the full horror of the crash of Germanwings
flight 9525. Co-pilot Andreas Lubitz waited for the pilot to leave the
cockpit, then locked the door to prevent his re-entry. After which
Lubitz, for reasons unknown and perhaps unknowable, deliberately steered
the jet into a harrowing 8-minute plunge ending in an explosive 434 mph
impact with a rocky mountainside. 150 men, women and children met an
immediate, unthinkably violent death.
Lubitz, in his single-minded madness, couldn't be stopped because anyone
who could change the jet's disastrous course was locked out.
It's hard to imagine the growing feelings of fear and helplessness that
the passengers felt as the unforgiving landscape rushed up to meet them.
Hard ... but not impossible.
Because America is in trouble. We feel the descent in the pits of our
stomachs. We hear the shake and rattle of structures stressed beyond
their limits. We don't know where we're going anymore, but do know it
isn't good. And above all, we feel helpless because Barack Obama has
locked us out.
He locked the American people out of his decision to seize the national
healthcare system. Locked us out when we wanted to know why the IRS was
attacking conservatives. He locked us out of having a say in his
decision to tear up our immigration laws, and to give over a trillion
dollars in benefits to those who broke those laws.
Obama locked out those who advised against premature troop withdrawals.
Locked out the intelligence agencies who issued warnings about the
growing threat of ISIS. He locked out anyone who could have interfered
with his release of five
Taliban terror chiefs in return for one U.S. military deserter.
And, of course, Barack Obama has now locked out Congress, the American
people, and our allies as he strikes a secret deal with Iran to
determine the timeline (not prevention) of their acquisition of nuclear
weapons.
Was Andreas Lubitz depressed, insane, or abysmally evil when he decided
to lock that cockpit door and listen to no voices other than those in
his head? Did he somehow believe himself to be doing the right thing?
The voice recordings from the doomed aircraft reveal that as the jet
began its rapid descent, the passengers were quiet. There was probably
some nervous laughter, confusion, a bit of comforting chatter with
seatmates, followed by a brief period in which anxiety had not yet
metastasized into terror.
It was only near the end of the 8-minute plunge that everyone finally
understood what was really happening. Only near the end when they began
to scream.
Like those passengers, a growing number of Americans feel a helpless
dread as they come to the inescapable conclusion that our nation's
decline is an act of choice rather than of chance. The choice of one man
who is in full control of our 8-year plunge.
A man who has locked everyone out.
If you aren't screaming yet, you should be.