Flight Risks

It seems like FAA officials are going to have to step up their game-theory perspectives as we grapple with the cascading effects of flight risks and counter-measures. There is no way to make self-reporting more attractive to pilots when risk-aversion would have any issue lead to grounding; there is no way to lock out the bad guys from the cockpit without also running the risk of locking out the good guys; there is no way to address the asymmetrical risk of armed pilots without arming the rest of the flight crew, thereby creating the distributed risk of firearms on aircraft; and, ultimately, there is no way to balance the risk between actors if two or more of them are in collusion. Ultimately, we have to accept that we put our lives in the hands of others, and no amount of screening or monitoring or other, clever counter-measures can replace an instilled sense of morality that would have caused Andreas Lubitz to overdose on sleeping pills to end his suffering rather than taking the lives of 150 people along with his. This apparent, growing trend of murder-suicide (sometimes, killing to be killed) is quite disturbing. It is as if people want to be remembered, no matter how.