Pilot Mental Illness: Relevant Topic or Overreaction?

The Germanwings Flight 4U 9525 that took off from Barcelona Airport in Spain heading for Duesseldorf, Germany, with 150 people on board crashed. It was deliberately done by the co-pilot, Andreas Lubitz, 27-year-old, who intentionally hid his medical conditions from his employer. Co-pilot Andreas Lubitz had been treated for depression in the past and it has been found that he had dozens of consultations in the weeks before he deliberately crashed a jet into the French Alps on March 24, 2015, killing all 150 people on board. The doctor’s that he visited didn’t tell authorities of any concerns about Lubitz’s mental health, even as one referred Lubitz to a psychiatric clinic just two weeks before the crash. 

During a 2012 JetBlue flight from New York to Las Vegas, Captain Clayton Osbon, 52-year-old, ran through the plane screaming about terrorism and asking passengers to embrace religion. Another co-pilot locked Osbon out of the cockpit, diverted the plane and made an emergency landing in Amarillo, TX. Osbon was charged with criminal charges for interfering with a flight crew, however, a federal judge found him guilty due to reason of insanity. Dozens of passengers claimed the airline had been grossly negligent in allowing Osborn to fly. Osbon filed a lawsuit three days after Germanwing accident, claiming that JetBlue acted negligently in permitting him to fly despite signs of mental health issues. Osbon had no known mental health issues, who had never raised any alarm. 

Part of the medical examination involves an assessment of psychological condition, but there is no official mental health exam. “The FAA does not expect the Examiner to perform a formal psychiatric examination,” the FAA guidelines state. “However, the Examiner should form a general impression of the emotional stability and mental state of the applicant.” Incidents like Osbon’s breakdown and the recent Germanwings disaster have prompted some to criticize airlines for what they see as insufficient psychological screenings and mental health checkups for flight crews.

The FAA lifted a ban on use of antidepressants like Prozac and Zoloft for commercial pilots. There has been concerns about the growing stress on commercial pilots, as airlines have scrambled to make up for a pilot shortages of lack of sleep. The FAA regulations now requires two pilots in the cockpit on U.S. flights at all times only with larger aircrafts. As for the mental health exam, “an AME may ask questions about psychological conditions as part of the assessment, pilots must disclose all existing physical and psychological conditions and medications or face significant fines if they are found to have falsified information.” As it’s been obvious in the past, pilots are afraid to disclose that they have a mental condition due to losing their job. The Aviation Rule-Making Committee does not recommend routine psychological testing because there was no convincing evidence that safety could be improved. The Aerospace Medical Association said in-depth psychological testing of pilots as part of routine periodic care is neither productive nor cost effective. Since mental illness can sometimes be undetected, the agency and the airlines will develop programs to increase awareness and reduce the stigma around mental health issues.

BBC News (March 23, 2017). Germanwings crash: What happened in the final 30 minutes. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-32072218.

Epstein, Adams. (March 26, 2015). A brief history of pilots deliberately crashing planes. Retrieved from https://qz.com/370575/a-brief-history-of-pilots-deliberately-crashing-planes/.

Hammer, Joshua. (February 22,2016). The Real Story of Germanwings Flight 9525. Retrieved from https://www.gq.com/story/germanwings-flight-9525-final-moments.