The story which without doubt dominated the international news last week was the tragic crash on Tuesday of a Germanwings plane in the French Alps which killed 150 people of various nationalities, including 72 Germans and 50 Spaniards. The plane was en route from Barcelona to Dusseldorf.
Sadly French officials on Thursday stated that according to information from the recovered voice recorder it appeared that the co-pilot of the plane, Andreas Lubitz, had intentionally started a descent while the captain was locked out of the cockpit.
“The most plausible interpretation is that the co-pilot through a voluntary act had refused to open the cabin door to let the captain in. He pushed the button to trigger the aircraft to lose altitude. He operated this button for a reason we don’t know yet, but it appears that the reason was to destroy this plane,” Marseille prosecutor Brice Robin said.
Lubitz was not known to have any links to extremism or terrorism and the reason why he chose to crash the plane and commit mass murder is as yet unknown. I am sure the French and German authorities will do whatever they can to find out why this terrible crime took place; in the meantime we must think of the victims of this terrible tragedy, and their relatives and friends.
German police have in fact seized possessions of Lubitz from his flat in Germany and according to Der Spiegel they found significant clues suggesting he suffered from a “psychological illness”. Other reports suggested he had been depressed and that he hid his illness from his employers.
Lufthansa has said that while it conducted regular medical examinations on its pilots to ensure that they were fit to fly, it did not carry out psychological tests. I am sure this policy will now change and that other airlines will follow suit.
It is difficult to measure the suffering that this catastrophe has brought to so many families- Angela Merkel
Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr added: “In our worst nightmares we couldn’t have imagined that such a tragedy could happen within our company.” Lufthansa confirmed that Lubitz appeared to have prevented the captain from re-entering the cabin after a toilet break, and placed the Airbus A320 into the dive that resulted in the crash that killed all 150 on board.
Unlike in the US, European regulations do not ensure that two people must be in the cockpit at all times, although some European airlines already adopt such a policy.
However, I am sure that this policy will now change, either as a result of new EU regulations or by the airlines introducing such a requirement unilaterally.
In fact, in the aftermath of the crash, airlines including Norwegian Air Shuttle, Air Malta, Easyjet, Air Canada, Air New Zealand and Air Berlin all said they had made it mandatory for two crew members be in the cockpit at all times. Lufthansa later also announced such a policy change.
There is only so much one can say about such a horrible tragedy, and one hopes that such a calamity never happens again. Hopefully, new measures will be put in place to minimise this possibility.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel summed up the situation when she said the news that one of the pilots had intentionally crashed the plane was “an additional strain on the families and in this hour full of suffering, these days full of suffering, our thoughts are especially with them. It is difficult to measure the suffering that this catastrophe has brought to so many families. Today, we now have received news that this tragedy has been given a new, immeasurably incomprehensible dimension.”
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Saudi Arabia last week launched airstrikes in Yemen against Iranian-backed Shi’ite Houthi rebels in an attempt to “defend the legitimate government” of President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi. There are fears that this Saudi operation could worsen an already very difficult situation and that other foreign direct intervention, such as by Iran, could now follow. Oil prices surged after the airstrikes amid fears that the fighting was out of control and spreading.
The situation in Yemen is as follows: The Shi’ite rebels from the north of the country, known as the Houthis, seized control of the capital Sanaa last year and have since been expanding their control over the country. The Shi’ites make up about 43 per cent of the population.
President Hadi, who first escaped to Aden in the south, is now believed to have fled to Saudi Arabia as the rebels advance. His Sunni-led government, backed by various militias, has called for outside military intervention to defeat the Iranian-backed rebels, hence the Saudi airstrikes.
The Saudi Press Agency claimed that the Saudi military operation was supported by Sudan, Morocco, Jordan, Egypt, Pakistan, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
An added complication is the fact that al-Qaeda is firmly entrenched in Yemen. Al-Qaeda is opposed to both the Houthis and President Hadi and has been carrying out terrorist attacks in the country (and abroad, as the Paris attacks have shown) for some time. To make matters worse, a Yemeni offshoot of Islamic State has recently emerged, and is trying to overshadow al-Qaeda. Islamic State, in fact, claimed responsibility for last week’s suicide attacks on mosques in Sanaa used by Houthi supporters.
Yet another complication is that the former president, Ali Abdullah Saleh is widely reported to be backing the Shi’ites, in an attempt to make Yemen ungovernable for his successor, who is backed by the United Nations.
The United States has for years been conducting drone strikes against al-Qaeda in Yemen as well as training the Yemeni armed forces in anti-terrorist operations. This latter strategy is now in tatters, as the US evacuated its remaining personnel from the country because of deteriorating security situation.
In the US, White House spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan said President Barack Obama had authorised logistical and intelligence support for the Saudi operation, but stressed that “US forces are not taking direct military action in Yemen”.
I’m not sure this is a correct strategy by Washington, as the only long-term solution for Yemen has to be some sort of genuine power-sharing agreement between the two sides, and a commitment by both to fight al-Qaeda and Islamic State. After all, this is the American policy in Libya, so why should Yemen be any different?
The Shi’ite rebels are now advancing to the southern port city of Aden which controls access to the Bab al-Mandab strait and the Red Sea, which has seriously worried the Saudis. The last thing they want to see is a pro-Iranian rebel movement taking over their southern neighbour.
However, Saudi Arabia and Iran hold the key to a settlement in Yemen and they should be encouraging the two sides to enter into negotiations for the formation of a national unity government instead of relying on military action.
“The looming danger is seeing Yemen merely as a proxy war between the Gulf Co-operation Council states and Iran,” Jon Altman, Middle East programme director at the Centre for Strategic & International Studies in Washington, said recently.
Such a proxy war is something that the international community should try to prevent, because an escalation of this conflict would be difficult to control.