Pilot Mental Health
Germanwings flight 9525 crashed into the side of a mountain on
March 24, 2015. The crash left the world in awe that a perfectly good plane fell
out of the sky. The world wanted answers but the answers we all received were
shocking at best. The French Bureau of Enquiry and Analysis for Civil Aviation
Safety(BEA), was the lead investigator with help from the German Federal Bureau
of Aircraft Accident Investigation and the US Federal Bureau of Investigation. A
week after the crash they found the black box. What was heard on the voice data
recorder was shocking. The Captain Patrick Sondenheimer and F/O Andreas Lubitz
talked “normally,” for the first part of the trip. Then as the Captain began
the mid-flight brief Lubitz became short with his answers. The Captain then
decides to leave the cockpit to presumably use the lavatory. This gave Lubitz
time to close and lock the door, then time to disable the unlock code outside
the cockpit. This now meat Lubitz was alone in the cockpit with no way for
anyone to gain entry. As Lubitz set the vertical speed to descend at 100 feet
per minute, you can hear the captain banging and screaming through the door.
Lubitz said nothing during this time, as only steady breathing was captured by
his microphone.
Lubitz mental illness was documented. According to the website
cbc.ca, the airline Lufthansa (where Lubitz did his flight training and owner
of Germanwings) found emails saying he took a several months break due to a “serious
depressive episode.” (Associated Press, 2015). The airline then goes on to say
Lubitz passed all his medical checks. Lubitz also struggled to get his ratings
while at the Airline Training Center in Arizona. One instructor said Lubitz
failed one of his flight tests because of a lack in situational awareness (a
key in being a pilot). Another instructor; Scott Nickell that Lubitz struggled
with procedural knowledge.
An example of another flight caused by mental health of a
pilot is Fedex Flight 705. The main reason for the near crash was due to a disgruntled
flight engineer Auburn Calloway. He was facing a possible dismissal due to falsifying
flight hours. His family would benefit from his $2.5 million life insurance policy.
He planned to murder the flight crew with claw hammers, club hammers, a spear
gun and a knife (Kovalchik, 2008). Luckily the crew of three were able to
restrain him while being on the brink of death. Upon landing a written note was
found written by Calloway about his despair. Any person that wants to kill
others and him/herself has apparent mental health problems.
Mental health in Aviation is highly
misunderstood. There is no way to diagnose a pilot without having them tell an aviation
medical examiner (AME). This is by far the easiest way to lie about any illness
somebody has. For example, anything that’s wrong with somebody is extra
paperwork, more time not having a medical and less time flying due to how long
it takes for paperwork to go through the system. There needs to be reform
around the whole industry. Mental illness is no joke as we can see it took the
life of 150 people in flight 9525 and countless others in this industry. I
believe the FAA and other Aviation bureaus need to hire a trained psychologist
and use them with the AME. This could be used as the last line of defense. Also,
I believe there should be some sort of mental illness database that examiners
can look at to see if a patient has been treated for a mental health issue
before. Last thing I would add is a check up every six months with
a psychiatrist employed at the airline. I choose six months because flying is
very stressful and to fly for the part 121 companies you need a first class
medical. This means that if someone is under the age of 40 they will be looked
at once for their medical renewal every year and at the halfway point. If someone
is over 40 then they will be looked at every time they renew their medical.
From the FAA and airline perspective, the issue would rise up of falsifying
his/her medical. No mater what the process is on determining if a pilot has
great mental health there will always be a way around telling the truth. As I
stated earlier the AME can ask questions about a patient’s mental health, but
they are just questions, they aren’t looking in-depth into the patients past.
The practice now is broken and needs a fix and just idling by will only make
matters worse.
References
Press, T. A. (2015, March 31). Lufthansa
knew of Germanwings co-pilot's 'depressive episode' years ago. Retrieved January
25, 2018, from http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/germanwings-flight-4u9525-flight-school-knew-of-depressive-episode-1.3015984
Kovalchik, K. (2008, July 24). True
Crimes: The Man Who Hijacked a Cargo Jet. Retrieved January 25, 2018, from http://mentalfloss.com/article/19159/true-crimes-man-who-hijacked-cargo-jet
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