The best solution to social problems is almost always for politicians to do nothing. As the great economic thinker Julian Simon demonstrated in his books, humans will solve all their problems if they are left free. But policymakers and government trusters tend to insist on political “solutions.”
Now we learn that the deaths of 150 people in a recent plane crash in the European Alps was caused by a suicidal co-pilot who deliberately sent the plane into a downward spiral. Another pilot–locked outside the cockpit–tried desparately to get back to the controls and save the plane. Apparently, cockpit voice recordings indicate that the outside pilot tried to break through the door and may have been using an axe.
But the cockpit door was reinforced, pursuant to policies enacted by governments in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
A story authored by Simon Calder in today’s THE INDEPENDENT illustrates that the 149 passengers who died in the recent Lufthansa Flight 4U 9525 crash into the French Alps died because of “antiterrorist” legislation.
Philip Baum, the editor of Aviation Security International magazine, said: “From the moment it became apparent that the Germanwings flight had made a controlled descent… with no Mayday, one feared that either pilot suicide or a hijack was the cause. The ill-thought reinforced cockpit door has had catastrophic consequences.”
If cockpit doors had been built like they were before 9/11, those 150 people would still be alive.
