Astronauts undergo extensive mental evaluation before being selected for space flight. Yet there are only 3-5 aboard. One lunatic can kill 400 people on a plane, yet they allow anyone on board. Are we fast approaching a time when a few people are going to paralyze society because we can’t filter them out of our legitimate activities?
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Do they carry a two person crew on that 402? I thought the article said “pilots”. A few years ago, I was giving a flight review to a retired FedEx Capt friend of mine in his Aztec. Of course he far exceeded my abilities. But, about a week later, he fell over dead from a massive heart attack while sitting in his truck. I always wondered had he done it on final, would I have realized and reacted in time to avoid hitting the ground. Ya never know.
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Yes they have a program through United Aviate for first officers.
Astronauts are not paying customers, but part of a crew so your point is unclear. “Yet they allow anyone on board”…well, how would you go about vetting every paying customer? We already complain about the physical security measures but now you would like to introduce…mental security?
Phycological interviews? Questionnaires? or the good ol’ “She dun look funny” approach that would be oh so accurate (/s).
To be blunt, you cannot screen for potential, Minority Report is just SciFi so instead, you go with the idea that most people are not crazy, that crews are trained to deal with the few, passengers are more likely to get involved, and life goes on.
Planes flew a few days after 9/11 and they quickly filled. I flew three weeks after and knew that if any crazy person stood and threatened the flight, 80+ people would do what ever to stop it because we now knew, negotiation was dead…that was/is better then any TSA screening.
If you still worry, fly private or drive, but keep in mind that the driver next to you may go bonkers, but their won’t be anyone stopping them slamming into your car.
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I’m inclined to think, given the number of incident-free flights every year, that two incredibly outlier episodes is not a trend, it’s statistical noise. There will always be an unstable person on board some flight, somewhere, sometime, but the odds of them causing a crash are still vanishingly small. There is no test for “fitness to fly” that can be administered at the gate, so vigilance and quick crew reactions are the fail-safe. I’d hate to see the FAA mandate a cargo-net barrier behind Cessna 402 cockpits as a result of this incident. 'Cause you know if they’re going to require it for them, they won’t be able to justify not mandating it for C172s… 
It was a sarcastic comment. No need to take it seriously. To your point though, there ARE paying customers on space flights. You’d be kidding yourself if you think they didn’t look at their mental stability.
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I’ve taken to driving where possible, within reason. Despite having Global Entry/TSA PreCheck, it’s just such a hassle and by the time you deal with the luggage, security, trying to bring a firearm, boarding lines and car rentals/transportation, it’s just easier and as fast to drive.
I agree. There will always be nutbars out there and short of plugging in every passenger to an rs232 port in the dystopian future and scanning for idiocy we just have to live with it. When we finally design a foolproof agenda to remove these folks from flights, the world will develop a better fool.
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Doesn’t it seem strange she would lunge at the controls after landing?
Glad I flew boxes.
The US stopped hijackings in the 1970s by quizzing passengers before boarding.
El Al has been quite successful quizzing passengers before boarding (in one case screener checked bag of a single woman going to vacation in Israel, found a bomb that her boyfriend had planted to eliminate his pregnancy problem). The screener somehow thought something didn’t add up even though she was innocent (perhaps going on vacation without boyfriend seemed unusual).
As for September 11, 2001, FBI botched: local agents told HQ of a person who insisted on only practising maneuvering not takeoff and landing, but HQ did not act. Local agents jailed the person, so one flight had one less hijacker than the others.
No worries though if meant as sarcasm, try using /s to let folks really know otherwise it is hard at times to know. Had you put a /s I would have smiled at the viewpoint and maybe posted sardonically instead.
You are correct that now there are paying customers though how thoroughly they are vetted before the flight is an open question. I was thinking more old school when those who went to space did so as part of their job.
Years from now it may be like it is today with aviation, the unwashed masses flying in the unfriendly vacuum of space. Hopefully a little harder to “open the door” 
Start by not serving booze in terminals.
I presume security screeners check for bottles in carryon baggage as they check for liquids.
(Booze releases inhibitions to subconsciously held desires.)
And there are other intoxicants that lead to craziness, harder to detect but police have methods of checking for intoxication after a pullover or crash.
(Marijuana puffing can be smelled, I gather.
Saanich BC police smelled it on a woman’s breath after stopping her speeding in a school one, she had just dropped children off - after she and other ‘mothers’ celebrated brats going to back to school by inhaling,)
Too bad it wasn’t a Cirrus. Their throttles have a built-in breakaway feature.
JK! 
I flew 402’s for a tour company many years ago. We flew single pilot unless the weather was IFR. That didn’t happen often. If conducting a tour why bother if you can’t see anything?
Also, we flew two routes. One allowed someone in the Copilot seat but the other did not. Decision up to the local FAA FSDO, I suppose.
‘allowed someone’ seems odd.or do you mean a passenger?
The DA’s news release says there were two pilots in this case.
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Yes, a passenger. Cape Air is basically a commuter airline. Where I flew at the time, I was flying Grand Canyon tours, different situation.
I would suggest that the ultimate safeguard would be for everyone to stay home and not do anything. How about 3 pilots and 2 have to agree before 1 does anything. Anyhow, more GA pilots kill themselves than are killed by lunatic passengers? Peter TT 10,000