I hate it when something horrible happens and the news readers call it "unthinkable". It's not unthinkable anymore, really, nothing is. It'll happen a few more times and be just as normal as a school shooting.

The most chilling thing was hearing on NPR that the co-pilot was heard on the flight recorder breathing calmly while he drove the plane into the mountain.

Horrifying as this is, it has happened before.

I hear Homeland Security is putting all co-pilots on a no-fly list.

I remember reading on a pilot's blog several years ago how TSA wouldn't let him take his cutlery set (because it had a butter knife) through the crew screening checkpoint, even though it was the same cutlery they use with the food service in business class. Never mind trying to explain this to these drones. He mentioned the obvious fact that, as a pilot, he could easily bring down the plane without the dull butter knife.

I remember this one too. last time TSA did pay a visit to my luggage they broke the locks and all my stuff was spread on the conveyor belt at the arrival (thanks to european lock non TSA approved). it was the same day that teen took a ride un-noticed from hawaii to LA inside a wheel well. I feel waaay secure since then.

+1 this stuff makes me furious. That someone can think that their problems are worth sacrificing a ton of lives, along with the emotions of the surviving family/friends of those lost makes me so mad. I don't care what kind of mental problems he may have had--what a selfish and uncaring act. While I guess you could put a toilet in the cabin so the pilots are never separated, this is so rare that it might just be one of those freak occurrences that we just have to deal with. On the other hand, low risk hasn't stopped us from any sort of security theater in the last decade.

I'm surprised more people aren't drawing parallels to the Malaysian Air flight. Pretty sad, and yes selfish.

This is some X-Files level shit right here. Totally unpredictable and unstoppable deliberate disaster. The Malaysian flight could have been the exact same thing. Some dark force overtaking an apparently normal and competent pilot. There was an X-Files episode with a similar theme, but it was just suicides, not suicide plus mass murder. I don't remember the conclusion, but the FBI no doubt has somebody checking.

Plot A: Russian mind control ray

Plot B: Poltergeist takes over the pilot's body

I would discount plot A. We're way ahead of the Russians in mind control ray technology.