“I wish you understood my German”

This morning, executives from Lufthansa, parent company of Germanwings, held a press conference to respond to evidence that one of their pilots deliberately crashed Flight 9525 into the French Alps.  The press conference was conducted almost entirely  in German — a live English translation was provided for television.  I watched the event on MSNBC.

I was steamed as I watched and listened to the following exchange between Katy Tur of NBC News and Carsten Spohr, CEO of Lufthansa.  (MSNBC posted a clip of it here.)

TUR: Katy Tur, NBC News.  Apologies if you’ve already answered this, but are there regulations where a flight attendant has to be in the cockpit if a pilot, uh, has a bathroom break or goes to get a coffee?

SPOHR (giving his first English-language response): Well, there is [sic] regulations in some parts of the world, including the one I assume you are coming from, the U.S., but only a small number of airlines in Europe, as far as I know, no, but [?] airline at all, for sure, none of the big airlines we work with.

TUR: Are you going to do that in the future?

SPOHR:  I don’t see any need to change our procedures at this very point, I think it’s this mis [?] single occasion, but as I mentioned before in German, we will get together with the various experts in the Lufthansa group airlines, in the authorities, with our German government, to see if our procedures can be refined.  I think we should not now jump into short notice activities, we rather should refrain from that and make analysis first.

TUR: So you are confident in your pilots?

SPOHR:  I wish you understood my German because I’ve said twice, and I repeat it in English, without any doubt.  My firm confidence in the selection of our pilots, in the training of our pilots, in the qualification of our pilots, in the work of our pilots, has not been touched by this single tragedy.

I have highlighted what I think are Spohr’s off-putting and superior-sounding remarks, for the reader’s benefit.  You can watch the clip and decide for yourself.

The clip does not show this, but the question right after Katy Tur’s was from another English-speaking reporter, who asked Herr Firmenboss Spohr to answer in English.  Spohr did not pause a second before launching into a German-language response.

We have seen this attitude before.  We saw it from NASA after the Challenger shuttle disaster.  We saw it from George W. Bush on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln and again in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.  We saw it from BP after the Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill.  And now from the CEO of Lufthansa.

The proper response in this situation — the one that would help people feel more confident that problems will be addressed — goes without saying.  But I’m going to say it anyway, because at least one person, Carsten Spohr, needs to hear it:

We will review all of our relevant procedures, training and equipment.  We must learn from every single event and make whatever changes are needed so that this cannot happen a second time.  We cannot assume anything.  We must all adopt the best practices our industry knows.  Our passengers, our crew members and their families expect no less.

In case Herr Firmenboss Spohr still does not understand, I will say it again, in German:

Wir überprüfen alle unsere einschlägigen Verfahren, Ausbildung und Ausrüstung. Wir müssen von jedem einzelnen Falle zu lernen und was Änderungen erforderlich sind, so dass dies nicht ein zweites Mal passieren. Wir können nichts übernehmen. Wir alle müssen uns verabschieden die besten Praktiken der Branche kennt. Unsere Passagiere, die Crew-Mitglieder und ihre Familien erwarten nicht weniger.

I am fortunate that I do not have to fly on Lufthansa while Herr Spohr is in charge.  Arrogant attitudes like his are a far greater threat to airline safety than troubled pilots.