International Desk
Aviation agencies around the world should draw up new rules requiring medical workers to warn authorities when a pilot’s mental health could threaten public safety, French investigators recommended Sunday after a yearlong probe into the German-wings plane crash.
The French investigation found that German-wings co-pilot Andreas Lubitz, who had been treated for depression in the past, had consulted with dozens of doctors in the weeks before he deliberately crashed a jet into the French Alps on March 24, 2015, killing all 150 people on board. Lubitz was 27 when he crashed the plane. German-wings and its parent company Lufthansa have strongly denied any wrongdoing in the crash, insisting that Lubitz was certified fit to fly.
But none of the doctors told authorities of any concerns about Lubitz’s psychological health, France’s BEA air catastrophe investigation agency said, including one who referred Lubitz to a psychiatric clinic just two weeks before the crash.
The agency found that the certification process failed to recognize the risks presented by Lubitz. It said one factor leading to the crash might have been a “lack of clear guidelines in German regulations on when a threat to public safety outweighs” patient privacy.