Comment Re:This validates the US policy... (Score 1) 737
Rules will always fail. Procedure can always be hacked. And was, you may notice. If it was a suicidal pilot, he could have tricked the the FA into leaving. Maybe he did. No matter how many attempts to manage humans, there can never be enough rules, and never a lack of ways to beat those rules.
Best way to have prevented this would be to NOT HAVE a door that locks out the rest of the plane. Let 9-11 go; that trick won't work again.
Another way? Airlines have cut cockpit crew numbers from 3 (pilot, co-pilot, navigator) to 2 (pilot/copilot) to save money, increase profits and break the unions. That MAY have more than a little to do with the fact that only one member of the flight team is present in the cockpit at times. We've cost cut our way into cheap fares and food-stamp-pilots.... and planes so short staffed that the illness of a single person can kill everyone.