How Can The GermanWings Crash Happen in 2015?

Following today’s revelations, it appears that all those speculative stories regarding the cause of the German Wings Airbus that crashed in The Alps on Tuesday have turned out to be nonsense.

Now the black box flight recorder has been investigated the authorities have quickly come to the conclusion that the co-pilot, named as Andreas Lubitz, appeared to want to "destroy the plane". Marseille prosecutor Brice Robin, in a press conference, citing information from the "black box" voice recorder, said the co-pilot was alone in the cockpit. He intentionally started a descent while the pilot was locked out of the cockpit.

Meanwhile, the head of Lufthansa, (they own Germanwings), said the co-pilot had undergone intensive training and "was 100% fit to fly without any caveats". He said "We have no findings at all about what motivated the pilot to do this terrible deed." Terrorism seems to be being discounted at the moment, which appears a bit premature and is something I’m not sure about.

The crash was a terrible enough event before this information was released. Today’s findings make it even worse constituting the mass-murder of innocent people. So many lives wrecked needlessly.

Horrific

When you board a plane, you put your life and trust into the pilots and the crew. This is one of the worst breaches of trust ever. It's really frightening to think once you are up in the air the life of you and the other passengers rely purely on the pilots. When this sort of thing happens, it's very scary to think how even pilots can just switch like that.

What on earth happened to this young co-pilot to make him do this? It’s horrific to think anyone would even contemplate something like this. I suppose it just goes to show that it’s impossible to allow for every eventuality.

I feel terrible for the main pilot who so desperately tried to get back into the cockpit to save himself and his passengers. No doubt he tried to not cause too much commotion until he really had to so as to prevent a panic. Until the end he thought of his passengers and their fear before his own. I cannot even begin to imagine what knowing you are going to die is like and sitting and waiting for it to happen.

Your heart goes out to those poor individual who must have realised what was about to happen and obviously to their families and friends. An accident is something you eventually come to terms with but how on Earth can you ever move on from this? Any explanation isn't good enough when you've senselessly lost a loved one in this manner.

Suicide?

Was it suicide? If it was it’s a cowardly act. If you want to take your own life that's fine but why take everyone else with you? There’s also the co-pilot’s own family who will now feel the guilt he has left. If you want to kill yourself then okay but why take 150 unknown innocent souls with you?

What is really upsetting is that usually on these short-haul European flights, the passengers walk across the tarmac to board the plane (as opposed to a tunnel entrance). That means the pilot will have seen the passengers board the plane; women with babies, young people. How sick do you have to be? If you are depressed and suicidal, I am sorry for your mental health, but sort it out on your time and agenda. Do not take innocent people down with you. If it was suicide I can only suspect this pilot was a megalomaniac, he wanted fame, he wanted notoriety. This co-pilot taking control of the plane by locking the pilot from the cockpit, then setting the jet to autopilot to descend and crash demonstrates an individual of out-of-control, it’s serious monomaniacal behaviour.

Maybe he was truly clinically depressed. Low cost airlines are squeezing the younger crews to the maximum for minimum pay. By the time they have to pay back their flying school fees, pay expensive rents near airport bases, live and fly the maximum legal hours on a daily basis, I’m sure many do become depressed and frustrated. It's a fairly lethal combination similar to that of Junior Doctors.

But how does it happen? How did it get to that stage? Did his co-workers or his employer German Wings not see any signs or know anything about his propensities?

Terrorism?

How is it possible that they can exclude an act of terrorism at this stage? I’d certainly call the deliberate crashing of an aeroplane with 150 people on board, an act of terrorism. One man killing 150 people including himself – that's not normal behaviour even for the clinically depressed. No matter how depressed you are, surely you don't want to take 149 people with you? I feel so sorry for this man's family, they will be vilified for decades.

Who’s to say that he hadn't become radicalised recently or that he wasn't being black-mailed by a terrorist group such as ISIS? – “crash the plane or your family will get killed” seems more plausible than simply committing suicide.

Has Security Gone Too Far Now ?

We know they made the cockpit doors safe to prevent hijackers after 9/11. First, we had to worry about the trouble from outside the cockpit - so they made it so that the doors could only be locked from the inside. Now it seems we have to worry about the people on the inside! Looks like you just can't win when dealing with humanity.

I get the reason behind the door being so strong, I understand the threat of terrorism etc, however all that security also prevented the pilot from re-entering the cockpit. Surly if a pilot leaves he should have some kind of override code to the door! Maybe one Pilot should never be alone in a cockpit. A steward should enter and remain if one of the pilots need to use the restroom. Or do we just have three pilots now so there’s always two in the cockpit? What about a small toilet facility in or adjacent to the cockpit so the pilot doesn’t have to leave? What about cockpit cameras streaming to ground monitoring stations?

All these ways will be expensive, but things may be a little safer that way. Looking at history though, people will always find a way to bypass even those actions. How long before it's mandatory to have 2 crew in the flight deck at all times?

Another concern was the news media showing everyone exactly how the cockpit has precautions so someone could not get in, including how the door locking mechanism works. Aren’t they are just providing the bad guys with the diagrams for future attacks?

Links ?

It will be interesting if there is any link between this co-pilot and others than have gone down in similar circumstances. It's odd that no-one in these recent events has highlighted strange behaviour. Other flights over the last 20 years include :

A flight between Mozambique and Angola crashed in Namibia in 2013, killing 33 people. Initial investigation results suggested the accident was deliberately carried out by the captain shortly after co-pilot had left the flight deck.

An EgyptAir Boeing 767 went into a rapid descent 30 minutes after taking off from New York in 1999, killing 217 people. An investigation suggested that the crash was caused deliberately by the co-pilot.

More than 100 people were killed in 1997 when a Boeing 737 travelling from Indonesia to Singapore crashed. The pilot - suffering from "multiple work-related difficulties" - was suspected of switching off the flight recorders and intentionally putting the plane into a dive.

And let's not forget the recent Malaysian Airlines flight which looks, although not proven, that it might have been a deliberate act too.

At The End Of The Day

I feel bad for those people that were unlucky enough to be stuck on that plane with a crazy pilot. It's a true tragedy and a shame. I believe now we need to implement cameras in the cockpit and two people in the cockpit at any time. Pilots are looked up to and highly regarded so for this to happen is an absolute shock, however with all the recent aviation events it seems necessary for changes to be made.

With regards to a pilot’s mental health, I guess you cannot assess someone completely; flying will continue to be a risk for this reason as your life maybe in the hands of an imperfect human. The only blessing that can come from this is that the airliner didn't crash into more people on the ground.

When you board a plane you relinquish your ability to be master of your own destiny. You have to trust pilots,  engineers, ground staff, other passengers along with the makers of the plane - in spite of this it still is the safest form of transport.

Why I Seriously Hate Manchester’s “Berlin Wall”

Anyone that’s been to Manchester in the last decade has seen it, that great big lump of grey that encloses half of what used to be Piccadilly Gardens. For 13 years this big slab of grey concrete has insulted people’s eyes. The wall was designed as a barrier between the bus station and the gardens by acclaimed Japanese architect Tadao Ando and built as part of a refurbishment exercise after the 1996 IRA bomb. It was officially called the Japanese Pavilion but has been repeatedly compared to the Berlin Wall since its construction in 2002. What was once a garden is now a baron grey concrete waste.

This hideous giant wall is widely hated by all, but (according to Manchester City Council) would cost too much to tear down – so six months ago it was announced that plans have been made to hide it. Quite how anyone could hide this monstrosity really beggars belief, it should just be pulled down. Oh and six months on guess what? It’s still there, unaltered, nothing done!

Design

As I said above, it was designed by the acclaimed Japanese architect, Tadao Ando as a functional work of art. Personally I think it was built on the cheap using the wrong products. Stone would probably have been fine but bare-faced concrete? No! Ando should have had the sense to realise that concrete doesn't work this far North. The light is wrong. What looks ok in the south of France or even New York just looks dull and grey in England (particularly in Manchester).

There's nothing wrong with there being a barrier between the bus station and the 'gardens', that's not why people hate it - they hate it because it's a ugly miserable slab of grey concrete that cost a fortune and looks like the designer thought he could get away with anything if he called it art.

The poor design of the wall extends to the adjacent ‘gardens’ and bus station. Manchester City Council has cynically chipped away at this once protected public park within the city centre for the past twenty years. First they sold off the Portland Street end of the park to fund their cold and alienating vision of a "Japanese garden". One designed by Stalin perhaps, a less Japanese design it would be hard to imagine; the Japanese love their gardens but Piccadilly Gardens is a work of cold, urban brutalism. So now, after decimating the Victorian gardens, they want to reduce it further, replacing about a third or more of what little space remains with shops.

Such heroically unimaginative, small-mindedness does not bode at all well for either the city or a devolved Greater Manchester. Despite being a Labour Authority they seem to have the attitude of "Sod creating a green oasis and high quality urban experience; that's prime real estate, get it sold". It’s all about the cash for them! If Manchester City Council ran New York, Central Park would be a small, scrubby roundabout with a couple of bushes!

Eyesore

The wall does serve a purpose, but concrete should never have been allowed. Stone or marble would have made an artistic contribution. The trouble is, it breaks up the space, makes it claustrophobic, and looks bleeding awful when the sun isn't out, or when it's wet; much as I love Manchester, it doesn't share the sort of light that Barcelona or Dubai has.

The whole area is truly a disgrace and needs looking at, I think you would be hard pushed to find a worse area in any major UK city, others would just not allow it so why does Manchester?  It's badly designed, badly lit and unsafe. The big wheel is also a ridiculous introduction into a public space. It’s just another eyesore. Why on earth do we need that in our second main space in this, the UK’s second city?

The fact is the whole area needs a rethink. It is a no go area after dark. It is a high crime area which is far too shielded to be safe and the lighting in areas is appalling. There are far too many places where unsavoury things can happen because they are unseen. Any time you go there, there are gangs hanging out. It is a real shame!

Local politicians like Pat Karney, Richard Leese and Howard Bernstein are the reasons we don't really want an elected mayor. Apart from the horrible wall these are the guys that took away the original gardens, sold-off the land, built some crap fountains that are always being switched-off, installed metallic trees (yes, really) along with sub-standard paving and they occasionally have a melting ice rink and that expensive big wheel there. Welcome to Manchester everyone!

Tear It Down

Six months ago, city centre councillor Pat Karney announced plans to disguise the wall by incorporating it into a new cafe and shop development. When he was asked why the wall couldn’t simply be torn down (or Mancunians be allowed to bash away at it with hammers, Berlin-style) Karney said it was more or less indestructible. “It was built to last forever,” he said. “Last year I had a quote for how much it would cost to pull down and it was £50,000-£100,000. It just wouldn’t be economic. The solution is to integrate it as an internal wall in a new development.”

Well I’m sorry Pat but surely a few thousand Mancunians with hammers could be encouraged to deal with it Berlin style at little cost to the council. I'm also sure there would be plenty willing to provide refreshments, a party atmosphere, and cart away the rubble. Job done. What about a fund raising exercise, 10,000 people giving a fiver each is easily achievable given the hatred for the wall?

Maybe some demolition contractor would be up for doing this for free to get some publicity? It could be on TV and in the papers with an opportunity to get their name and logo everywhere ? Or some other kind of company like Lego could sponsor the event for similar exposure? Acclaimed local singers like Mick Hucknall could sing on top whilst it is being demolished, recreating the iconic David Hasselhoff moment when the Berlin Wall came down. You could even get The Hoff himself to turn up and sing.

Create A New Piccadilly Square

Piccadilly ‘Gardens’ needs to be transformed into a world class public space. If we want to create a so called 'Northern Powerhouse' that will rival London then we'd better turn Manchester into a place where people actually want to go. 

I frequently walk through Piccadilly ‘Gardens’ and think it will continue to fail miserably until it's completely overhauled. Recently I've been to Trafalgar Square and also to the Plaza de la Constitucion in Malaga both of which are attractive, pleasant and cope with fairly large volumes of people. First and foremost, there's no grass to be regularly fenced off and re-seeded in either. They are covered in slabs of stone, not paving flags. They are completely dry areas with no slimy wet soil that forces people into narrow corridors to walk. Trafalgar Square in particular has excellent stone seating around the edges and monuments that draw people in and provide leaning posts. Piccadilly ‘Gardens’ seating is a disgrace because they are built on the cheap and not built for a long life.

I really don’t know why they’re proposing retail on the wall as there is already shops and cafes on the inside of the wall. Personally, I don't think the public space should be encroached upon any further. Someone needs to re-think the landscaping of the whole area, it always looks scruffy, the grass can't stand up to the wear and tear it gets, and it doesn't deserve the name 'gardens'. Manchester deserves an attractive, open space that can be easily maintained to stay clean and pleasant, not just another cluster of takeaway joints.

  

Remove that ridiculous big wheel, it's like some dirty old fairground attraction on a caravan park. Get rid of the grass, pave it properly! Cover the wall in stone or marble, make it a landmark to the people of Manchester. But for the love of god no more Sainsbury's locals, Spars, amusement arcades or betting shops. Another important (but controversial one) is to get rid of the buses! The bus station can go, the pollution and noise would not be missed, bus stops on London Road. can be used instead and buses can wait outside the city centre.

The place seriously needs colour - there was a petition to construct a low-maintenance vertical garden up the bus station side of the wall, whatever happened to that? It would have looked a lot less depressing than bare concrete and plant life helps to absorb the traffic fumes too.  The Gardens are so small that planting a few trees would hardly turn it into a proper green space (like Hyde Park, or Central Park in New York) it's just too small. Planters, nice benches and pleasant pathways through it would be much more suitable in my opinion. More greenery yes, but let's not pretend that it's ever going to be an urban forest - there's far too much foot traffic for that.

Manchester City Council needs to listen to the people! We want the wall to go - not get changed - along with the ridiculous pavilion (bunker more like) but we don't want a load of shops built there, turning it into another shopping precinct. It needs a complete restoration based on other modern developments like those mentioned above.  Every change carried out so far has made it worse, now is an opportunity to actually make it better.

But at the end of the day, just removing the hideous Berlin Wall would improve it massively !!

Radio 2, I’m It’s Target Audience So Why Can’t I Abide It?

At 47 I’m probably slap bang in the middle of Radio 2’s target audience. According to the BBC Trust, “the remit of Radio 2 is to be a distinctive mixed music and speech service, targeted at a broad audience, appealing to all age groups over 35” – so me then ! Why then can’t I abide the station?

Ten years ago I used to dip into Radio 2 and quite enjoy some of it, Wogan was always entertaining in his own way, Jeremy Vine was fairly fresh after replacing Jimmy Young. Jonathan Ross, Johnnie Walker and Radcliffe & Maconie always entertained, but then Chris Evans arrived, Ross got sacked and it wasn't the same any more. I ended up listening to Radio Manchester, which is brilliant for sport and local stuff but the music is middle of the road dross.

Earlier this year Radio Manchester “refreshed” its weekday line-up, the new pair on breakfast irritated me so I decided lets give Radio 2 another go – big mistake! After a week listening to it I've turned off – so why did I do that when its aimed at me, I'm its supposed target audience?

Well in summary the reasons I'm not going to listen to Radio 2 are:

1. Self congratulatory style of presentation, especially Steve Wright, Jo Whiley and Vanessa Feltz
2. There’s no flow to the music, it’s like they've been thrown in with no thought
3. Too London centric
4. An obsession with traffic reports
5. Inane chat - just too much Smashie n Nicey
6. Over paid DJ's - BBC Radio 2 has a £15 Million budget
7. It is essentially an independent local radio station without adverts
8. Tailored for those who need background noise
9. It is not entertaining in any way
10. Tie ups with lowest common denominator TV programming

But let’s have a look at the daytime roster a little closer to see the irritants:

Chris Evans

This man so loves the sound of his own voice and everyone who comes on the show seem to be plugging something or other, or they're so far up their own arse its untrue. With Evans’ constant name dropping and in your face jingles his show is beginning to resemble Ed Stewart's Junior Choice from the 70s.

These days Chris Evans is just plainly awful. He is a bullying egotist who belittles his own co presenters. For some inane reason he seems to think that we wish to listen to his children on national radio, Chris - we don’t! He talks constant drivel in a very loud and irritatingly cheerful voice, and, equally constantly, interrupts any music tracks and guest interviews. He seems to like to hear his own opinions more than listening to anyone else's views.

Maybe his show should've been titled, “Me and my rich friends and expensive life”. I've read his autobiographies and admire his rags to riches story but it now appears to be very much about the riches.

A quick summary of his show would be “How do you like your eggs in the morning? at Carfest Everybody! I know Nick Mason! How many Ferraris do I own? I'll buy another one tomorrow - thank you Taxpayer; here's some more sound-clips of my son Noah who is probably Christ. Did I mention Carfest by the way? Here's some Coldplay. I earn millions."

It is about time that this over inflated ego was put out of our misery. After listening to three hours of infantile drivel delivered with a screeching voice and an obsession with giggling I'm sure he’d be better hosting a pre-school children's slot.

Ken Bruce

The excruciatingly anodyne Ken Bruce seems to be a throw-back to the 70s if not earlier. How has he survived doing essentially the same show since 1984, that’s over 30 years !!!! I suppose its helped his career that he sounds a bit like a tepid imitator of Wogan,

I can't find words to describe how cringe worthy he and his traffic side kick, Lynn Bowles are to my ears. The so called 'banter' between Bowles and Bruce is truly embarrassing. His show is simply beige in colour, a watery broth and excruciatingly ordinary. It really is the “cheese factory”, maybe a career on Saga Radio (if it exists) beckons

Jeremy Vine

Another one who loves the sound of his own voice, debating subjects like a 6th former and trying to convince the audience of his music knowledge. His show is sensationalist nonsense disguised as debate. It feels likes he’s broadcasting at you rather than to you.

With his patronising rubbish and his largely pensioner phone in's. The Jeremy Vine Programme does seem to be the BBC's answer to the Daily Mail.

I liked Jeremy when he was on Newsnight, bit of an anti-dote to Paxman. Maybe with Paxman gone Vine’s career would benefit from being booted upstairs back into proper journalism.

Steve “Love The Show” Wright

Steve Wright is, and always has been awful. He began on Radio 1 as a piss-poor wannabe Kenny Everett and evolved into some dreadful pseudo American treacle toned gob shite. He was a vacuous, narcissistic, irritating, unfunny prat when he was on Radio 1 thirty years ago. He hasn’t improved with age. He's one of only two presenters on Radio 2 who've been rehashing the same show since the 1980s (Bruce being the other one).

On the unfortunate occasions I've listened to his programme I've noticed he seems to either sing over the end of the song, cut the song short so he can talk or just talk over the top of the song every single time. ‘Ask Elvis’ is good I’ll give you that but ‘Barry from Watford’ needs to be put down. I really can't stand all the chummy stuff, the reading out of newspaper articles and the hilarious laughter over rubbish gags.

They say Steve Wright has 6 million "listeners", well there might be 6 million radios turned on but no one in their right mind is listening to his inane programme.

Simon Mayo

Listening to Simon Mayo’s show was just a chore. The endless banter and congratulatory laughter between the presenters thoroughly bored me. Simon’s monotonous voice just grated on me. Cheer up mate, you’re presenting drive time, it’s the end of the working day, everyone’s cheerful because they’re off home we want a cheerful voice to listen to on the way home.

The show seems to have way too much chat. The in-jokes, giggling and lengthy interviews in just two hours is not exactly what you want when stuck in a traffic jam. Oh, and why does the show need so many co-presenters?

So its hats off to Simon Mayo as the most charmless presenter on the radio, tedious beyond belief. He sounds so uncomfortable presenting the drive time show. I just get the impression he wishes he was anywhere else but presenting this show – probably back at 5Live actually where he came across well.

Why No Women?

Having listened to Radio Manchester for a few years I've got used to female presenters (two of their four daytime shows are presented by women with a third co-presenting breakfast). So tuning back to Radio 2 I found a complete lack of female presenters during the daytime, none of the regular presenters from Chris Evans at breakfast to Simon Mayo’s drive time show are women. Very strange in this day and age!

What Radio 2 has is horrible, awkward banter between the DJs and Lynn Bowles and Sally Traffic - it's dated and sexist (they both seem to play up to this image of the dumb lady sidekick that I thought went out in the 70s), and not the slightest bit funny, just generally painful.

There's a feeling that women don't want to listen to other women, which is utter rubbish. Maybe there's a feeling that men won't listen to a woman. That's rubbish too. There's no evidence for any of this.

In truth, it shouldn't really be about male to female ratios, it should just be about who is best. If there are better female presenters, put them on daytime. But if there are better male presenters, then why replace them? And if they're just as good as each other, then a mix of male and female presenters in the daytime schedule would be welcome. Going off the above, I'm firmly convinced that there’s better presenters out there than the stale ageing crowd that are on Radio 2 at the moment.

Jo Whiley used to be on daytime Radio 1, and Lauren Laverne is on 6Music, so it's not as if there are no daytime females. Yes, there would be uproar if they sacked, say, Evans, Bruce or Wright, and replaced them with say Sara Cox or Zoe Ball, just for the sake of putting a female voice into the daytime schedules  One I am firmly convinced of though is that Janice Long or Liz Kershaw would be great on Drive time, much better than Simon Mayo!

I sympathise with Radio 2's problem, and think the tactic of putting on women to cover holidays for the regular line up is a good holding tactic until an opening appears for a full time female presenter. There have been some brilliant female presenters over the years, remember Annie Nightingale? So where’s the current crop? Radio 2 wouldn't do too bad to look to local radio for some new female blood.

Where Now For Me?

So the question is are Radio 2s daytime programmes massively popular BECAUSE of the presenters, or DESPITE the presenters? I suspect their daytime programmes would be pretty popular regardless of the presenter, but in it’s current format Radio 2 is not for me.

Personally I've switched to Radio 6 Music for my listening needs - the DJs don’t just gas on about their cars, kids and celebrity friends and actually seems to both know something about the music but also care about what they’re playing...and the music is better as well ! The documentaries are interesting and overall there’s a warmth to the station.

One question I do have is why can't they put Radio 1 on DAB only and hand over the VHF transmitters to Radio 6 Music?