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Not at all times and even then lots of disasters happened because the first officer didn't correct (even major) mistakes by the captain (or vice versa) - EgyptAir 990 comes to mind

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True. I thought about EgyptAir and Aeroflot cases too. Correct me if I'm wrong, but both planes didn't have FBW flight envelope protection either? That might have prevented pilot/child from upsetting planes attitude irrecoverably.

And EgyptAir co-pilot actually tried to overcome captain and recover till the end.

But I think those cases neither validate nor invalidate the need to screen the pilots?

Certainly they validate the case to have co-pilots.

That's what we need to make airline travel safer. The two pilots both fly with loaded handguns pointed at the head of the other pilot in case they turn out to be a crazy commie/terrorist/(delete as appropriate).

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