Pilots and Depression

 The Germanwings flight 9525 accident occurred on March 24, 2015. Copilot Andreas Lubitz, 27, was flying the aircraft at the time of the accident. The pilot was locked out of the cockpit when he left to use the bathroom and was trying to get back in. During this time, Lubitz purposefully descended and did not respond to any of the times ATC tried to contact them. “The Airbus 320 from Barcelona to Duesseldorf hit a mountain, killing all 144 passengers and six crew, after an eight-minute descent” (BBC News, 2015). When the pilot was locked out of the cockpit, the altitude was changed from 38,000 feet to 100 feet. After Andreas Lubitz started his training in 2008, he had to stop training because of unknown reasons since Germany has medical laws that protect privacy. It came up that he was battling depression and never informed his company about it. “Prosecutors said a doctor's note stating that Lubitz was unfit to fly on the day of the crash was found at the co-pilot's residence in Düsseldorf, Germany” (Engel & Zhang, 2015). Supposedly this note was from his psychiatrist, but he never brought it to his company to let them know.

     On December 19, 1997, a flight from Jakarta, Indonesia, to Singapore crashed in a jungle in Indonesia which killed 104 people. The pilot, Tsu Way Ming was flying the Boeing 737 when it crashed. They NTSB was called in to investigate since the aircraft was made in the United States at the Boeing Company in Seattle. They believe he was committing suicide because the aircraft was in good condition and nothing was wrong. According to the NTSB, “‘The evidence suggests that the cockpit voice recorder was intentionally disconnected.’ The report said wreckage showed the plane’s engines were set to high power and that controls were set to a ‘nose-down’ position” (Morris, 2000). The Indonesian investigators failed to include the difficulties that Tsu was going through. During the time of the crash, the pilot was going through financial problems and had been in trouble multiple times a few weeks before the accident by management of the airlines. The in-flight data was also disabled, but the NTSB said “‘The airplane was responding to sustained flight control inputs from the cockpit’” (Morris, 2000).  The NTSB stated that the aircraft could have been recovered from the nose-down position and these acts seemed to be intentional. Although it doesn’t say that he had any mental condition, it seemed as though Tsu Way Ming was going through some difficult times which could have caused him to crash the aircraft.

     As I was reading an article about the Germanwings accident, I came across how Lufthansa handles their psychological testing. “Lufthansa does not have standard psychological testing for pilots once they are hired. The company considers an applicant's psychological state when hiring, he said” (Levs, Smith-Spark, & Yan, 2015). For this process, I think that it is important to make sure that the companies keep up with the psychological state of each other their employees on maybe a yearly basis. They should have some kind of updated medical records to make sure that their employees are cleared to fly. In this instance where Lubitz had a medical note and never gave it to his employers, maybe some type of communication with the psychiatrist and the employers is important. Everyone goes through hard time that can affect them in negative ways which can lead to situations like these.

     As a result of the Germanwings flight in 2015, the Aerospace Medical Association created a group to examine the mental health of pilots. The group concluded there needed to be “greater attention given to mental health issues by aeromedical examiners, especially to the more common and detectable mental health conditions and life stressors that can affect pilots and flight performance. They encouraged this through increased education and global recognition of the importance of mental health in aviation safety” (Scarpa, n.d.). I think that this is very important because some people do not know the signs to look for if people may be depressed. I think that educating pilots and others on the importance can help.

     The FAA has medical examiners that look for “disturbing signs — including erratic behavior, medications and family histories — during regular checkups” (Chan, 2015). Anyone who is older than forty has to be examined at least twice a year and those that are younger than forty have to be examined one a year. At each examination, the pilots must pass the exam to keep their medical certificate. During these examinations, they test the health of each individual, which doesn’t cover the psychological state of these individuals. The medical examiners “ask questions about psychological condition as part of his/her assessment” (Chan, 2015). If they believe the individual needs to get further testing, they can let them know that they need to get it done before they can receive their medical. Pilots are supposed to inform examiners or their employers of any type of physical or psychological problem. If they fail to do this, then they will be charged a fine. I understand that it can be really hard to examine pilots for mental issues, but I think that they should have to go through a psychological exam every year or every other year at least, not just when the medical examiner finds something wrong. The amount of stress that pilots can go through can start to wear on them, especially as they age and fly more. I think that giving exams to pilots could maybe help find things that regular exams cannot. The only thing is that the professional has to have some way of informing the employer if they have found any sort of mental condition that doesn’t allow the pilot to fly just in case the pilot doesn’t inform them.  

     From the FAA and the airline perspective, if they had a more liberal approach, I can see the challenges coming into play with if people report their mental illness or not. If pilots report that they have been experiencing a mental illness, they will most likely lose their license because they are seen as unfit to fly. Because of this, pilots may not want to inform their employers or even seek help. If the FAA and airlines were to help pilots out, they could have some sort of program that allows for pilots to let their employers or the FAA know of their condition and not suspend their license right away. One exception is the pilot has to complete a psychological examination within a certain period of time. During the time they have to complete the examination, the pilots could have limits set on maybe the amount of hours they can fly or the routes they can take.

     If the pilot fails to complete the testing, they automatically lose their license until they get an examination done. When they have an examination done, the professional will help determine if the pilot is fit or not to fly. If they believe it isn’t too serious, then they can keep their pilots license, but will have to be watched carefully for some time and have to return to their examiner every so often for a checkup. If they fail the test or the professional thinks they are not fit to fly, then the FAA or airlines can talk to the professional and the pilot to figure out ways to help them so they can get their license back. A problem with this though is if the public finds out that the FAA allows people who have a mental illness flying, no matter if they have been cleared to fly or not by a professional, the public will most likely still not tolerate that and will feel unsafe. There needs to be some sort of system that allows for pilots to feel comfortable with informing employers or the FAA about their mental illness and not be so worried about if they will lose their license or not.

References

BBC News. (2015, March 27). Germanwings Plane Crash: Co-pilot 'Wanted to Destroy Plane'. Retrieved January 24, 2016, from BBC News : http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-32063587

Chan, M. (2015, March 26). FAA Does Not Require Psychological Tests for Pilots . Retrieved January 24, 2016, from Daily News : http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/faa-not-require-psychological-tests-pilots-experts-article-1.2163359

Engel, P., & Zhang, B. (2015, March 30). Here's Everything We Know About the Crash of Germanwings Flight 9525. Retrieved January 24, 2016, from Business Insider: http://www.businessinsider.com/everything-we-know-about-germanwings-flight-9525-2015-3

Levs, J., Smith-Spark, L., & Yan, H. (2015, March 26). Germanwings Flight 9525 Co-Pilot Deliberately Crashed Plane, Officials Say. Retrieved January 24, 2016, from CNN: http://www.cnn.com/2015/03/26/europe/france-germanwings-plane-crash-main/

Morris, R. (2000, December 15). SilkAir Crash Was Probably Intentional. Retrieved January 24, 2016, from ABC News: http://abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=81919&page=1

Scarpa, J. P. (n.d.). Pilot Mental Health. Retrieved January 24, 2016, from Aerospace Medical Association: http://www.asma.org/publications/pilot-mental-health