This paper examines some of the reasons why pilots take deliberate actions to ground their planes, thereby endangering themselves, any passengers, and the craft.
When we hear about the grounding of an airplane, we are likely to think first about mechanical problems with the aircraft, or adverse weather conditions or, in our post-9/11 era, about sabotage. However, there are also instances in which a pilot, while in control of the aircraft (i.e. excluding situations such as when a pilot accidentally presses a lever because he or she has blacked out), misdirects the aircraft. This paper examines the causes for such deliberate but potentially fatal actions.
There are a number of different types of deliberate action that can result in the grounding of an aircraft (as well as in other actions); the ability to build in either mechanical or psychological mechanisms to counter the potential problems of such an action vary with the reasons for the deliberate action. For example, if the intention o the pilot in taking a deliberate action that will result in harm to both the craft and the pilot is to commit suicide, there is relatively little that can be done to prevent a terrible outcome. Those intent on harming themselves are likely to see through and to be able to dismantle safeguards put into place. It is difficult, for example, to conceive of mechanical safeguards that could have been put into place that would have prevented the 9/11 attacks (after the terrorists had already taken control of the cockpit, that is).
This was the case in a 1997 Silk Air crash, in which investigators determined afterwards that the descent profile indicated that only a "deliberate action" on the part of the pilot could account for the facts:
A suicidal pilot was at the controls when 104 people aboard Silk Air's Flight 185 plunged to their deaths in the Musi River near Palembang, Indonesia, in December 1997.
Fourteen months after the crash, internati...