'Ass-covering' implies the hospital has anything to cover up, or is to blame for some reason. But they haven't and they aren't, which I'm sure they know. Even if they
had treated Lubitz for depression, they wouldn't have been to blame in any way for what happened. You don't lock depressive people up and throw away the key to prevent them from committing massmurder - which there is no reason to believe they will do, of course. And patient/doctor confidentiality as practised in Germany didn't allow the hospital to notify the airline about his diagnosis or sick note anyway, no matter what it was about. There's nothing the hospital could have done to prevent this tragedy.
Nothing anyone could have done, it seems. There is no system in the world that can be made 100 % safe, no matter what. It is human to want someone to blame, because that means it could be prevented. But here, it seems there's no one to blame but that co-pilot, and he's dead already.
As for using the word 'thankfully' - that was purely about me. I would never in a million years present that as some sort of demand on the grieving relatives and friends of the victims - 'you should be thankful they didn't suffer much at least' or something. Brrr - that would be horrible and insensitive in the extreme. But if they found consolation in this themselves, I would support them, and elaborate on that. Definitely. How could that be bad for them? Or bad for anyone?
It's very common for those who have lost someone in horrible accidents or violent attacks like this to ask: Was it quick? Did they suffer? And no, this is not some sort of detrimental security blanket grown ups should get rid of - I'm sorry, but I don't understand that idea. It's a coping strategy. It's not about an illusion of control, either, it's about amount of suffering.
Personally, in the event of my imminent, senseless death, I would prefer a few seconds of sheer terror over 8 minutes of sheer terror.
Yes, me too.
It's hard for me not to identify with the relatives of the victims here, (or the victims themselves). We lost a close friend of the family to the horror of Utøya in 2011, where that ass-hole of a terrorist, who shall not be named by me, chased down and shot terrified teenagers fleeing for their lives before him. It
is hard to know that they suffered this absolute horror before they died - some of them for as long as 45 minutes. That
is worse than the instant death of the victims of the government quarter bombing. Which is in no way claiming that those deaths were not also horrible, or that those relatives and survivors have any less reason to grieve.
Yes, it may sometimes be grating to watch the constant grinding on very little fact in some of the media - milking the tragedy for what it's worth as it were. Personally, I picked up that small consolation thing from watching the press conference with the Marseille chief persecutor, where he described what can be heard on the last eight minutes of the sound recorder: the captain trying to break in, Lubitz' silent, calm breathing, and screams from the passengers only in the very last few seconds.
No, this is not absolute proof that they didn't understand what happened until they started screaming. But it is an indication, at least. For which I, personally, am thankful. As far as 'thankful' is possible with a tragedy of this scale, that is.