French air accident investigators recommend Sunday that world aviation bodies draw up new rules requiring medical workers to warn authorities when a pilot’s mental health could threaten public safety, after 150 people died when a Germanwings co-pilot deliberately crashed a jet into the French Alps last year.
Co-pilot Andreas Lubitz had been treated for depression in the past, and the investigation found that he had consulted dozens of doctors in the weeks before the crash on March 24, 2015.
But the many doctors didn’t inform authorities of concerns about his mental health, France’s BEA investigation agency says. One doctor referred Lubitz to a psychiatric clinic just two weeks before the crash, it says in its report on the disaster.
“Experts found that the symptoms (he was presenting at that time) could be compatible with a psychotic episode,” says Arnaud Desjardin, leader of the BEA investigation. This information “was not delivered to Germanwings.”
Because Lubitz didn’t inform anyone of his doctors’ warnings, the BEA says, “no action could have been taken by the authorities or his employer to prevent him from flying.”
— AP
In this Sunday, Sept. 13, 2009 photo, Andreas Lubitz competes at the Airportrun in Hamburg, northern Germany. Germanwings co-pilot Lubitz appears to have hidden evidence of an illness from his employers, including having been excused by a doctor from work the day he crashed a passenger plane into a mountain, prosecutors said. (photo credit: AP Photo/Michael Mueller)
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