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Three reasons why the Milan incident and the Germanwings accident are similar

Paola Tomasello

On the 20th March, nearby Milan (Italy), Ousseynou Sy, an Autoguidovie bus driver, hijacked his bus with two groups of young students onboard. Thanks to the prompt Italian Police intervention, all passengers survived and nobody was severely injured, although it will take time to manage the post-traumatic stress effects.

Ousseynou declared he wanted to protest against the dramatic deaths of migrants in the Mediterranean Sea. The Italian Public Prosecutor stated that his action is an individual criminal initiative and cannot be categorised under the organised Islamic terrorism.

Someone may have recalled the Germanwings accident. Without prejudice to the differences, three analogies between the two events may be identified:

• On duty crime execution: there was evidence that Lubitz had suffered from a kind of hostility towards Germanwings/Lufthansa. It is still not clear why Sy decided to commit the sabotage while on duty, namely if there are any links between the protest and the willingness to strike back at Autoguidovie. Nevertheless, both Andreas and Ousseynou represented an insider threat for the transport organizations they were employed in. Current approaches only address the risk related to “external killers”, but what if the killer is already “inside the cockpit”?

• Lack of organizational controls of fitness-forduty: there was evidence that Lubitz had undergone psychiatric treatment in the past. Similarly, Sy’s history includes two criminal records: temporary suspension of the driving license due to drink-driving and a prison term for children sexual abuse. How was it possible for Sy and Lubitz to keep the driving license despite these evidences?