Commercial airlines do not screen pilots for mental health issues as rigorously as government agencies, law enforcement and specialized branches of the military, and some aviation experts say that may need to change in the wake of the apparently deliberate crash of a German airliner with 150 people on board.
Investigators in France, where the Germanwings Airbus A380 went down Wednesday, said Friday that the co-pilot of the plane, Andreas Lubitz, had concealed his health problems from the airline and was aboard the plane even though a doctor had declared him “unfit for work.” Investigators say Lubitz waited until he was alone in the cockpit before typing in a computer command that directed the plane to descend. He secured the cockpit door so that the pilot, who had gone to the bathroom, couldn’t get back in.
The fact that the airline, which is operated by Lufthansa, the German national carrier, was unaware of his health problems raises questions about the sophistication of screening for pilots, not just in Germany, but in the United States as well.
Other occupations where a high degree of public safety is involved, including police officers and firefighters, astronauts and the Air Force pilots who are entrusted with planes carrying nuclear weapons, often require more thorough mental health evaluations than commercial pilots.
“It’s probably time for the airlines to start doing background checks,” said Thomas Daly, the dean of the aviation program at Dowling College in Brookhaven, N.Y.
Daly, who spent 30 years as a police pilot in Nassau County, N.Y., said that government agencies, including the FBI, call and visit frequently to ask him about his former flight school students. A few hundred students at a time enroll in the four-year program, and Daly said he gets to know most of them.
He said not one airline has called as part of a pilot background check.
“I don’t see that happening right now, today, with the airlines,” he said.
According to audio from the Germanwings aircraft’s voice recorder, after Lubitz set the plane on its fatal descent, the pilot tried but failed to break down the cockpit door, which was reinforced under requirements adopted after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The sounds of the pilot’s knocks, then violent poundings, are plainly audible, investigators say. The same recording detected no sound from Lubitz, however, except his breathing, which continued until the plane slammed into a mountainside at about 6,500 feet.
German authorities said Friday that they found a shredded doctor’s note in Lubitz’s apartment apartment declaring him “unfit to work.” Apparently, the airline was never aware of the 27-year-old co-pilot’s health problems.
Though specific mental health problems may not by themselves disqualify pilots from duty, experts caution, the stigma that surrounds mental illness can discourage both employees from disclosing such conditions and employers from asking enough questions about them.
The medical recertifications pilots are required to undergo once or twice a year, depending on their age, may not probe deeply enough to reveal potential red flags, experts say.
“That would be the place to catch these problems,” Daly said. “When we get to the doorway, everything else has failed us.”
The Federal Aviation Administration requires U.S. airline pilots to undergo a physical exam at least once a year, twice if they’re age 40 or older. Aviation medical examiners are required to ask pilots about their mental health as part of the recertification process, but the process can involve as little as checking a box.
“It’s kind of the honor system, unfortunately,” Daly said.
John Hastings, a neurologist in Tulsa, Okla., who performs medical recertifications for commercial pilots said that theoretically, the examiner at some point should ask the pilot how he’s doing, whether he has any troubles at home, or any at work.
“Looking that pilot in the eye and asking those questions is the most important reason for doing the physical,” Hastings said. “But how much time is typically spent examining a pilot’s emotional health? Very little. In my opinion, too little.”
In a statement Friday, the Air Line Pilots Association International, the world’s largest pilot union, said that pilots in the U.S. and Canada undergo “rigorous screening and evaluation” in the hiring process, and “are evaluated continuously throughout their careers.”
“In addition,” the union said, “all flight and cabin crew members monitor and evaluate each other while on duty, and procedures, processes, and programs exist to respond should a concern arise.”
Concerns about the mental health of pilots aren’t new. In 2013, Tony Evans, the chief medical officer of the International Civil Aviation Organization, the civil aviation safety authority of the United Nations, warned that airlines should pay more attention to mental health issues, especially in younger pilots who are otherwise physically healthy.
“If we’re going to move in a safe direction, something has to be changed,” said Daly, the flight school dean. “You can’t go on with the hopes that things will get better.”
It’s not publicly known from what medical condition Lubitz might have suffered. Investigators have said only that they believe he deliberately crashed the plane. German media reports have offered a mixed picture, with some friends saying Lubitz, 27, was a pleasant, admired young man, while others said he’d once confessed of a breakdown.
German news outlets also have reported that Lubitz suffered through “a severe depressive episode” during his training in Phoenix in 2009 to become a pilot for Lufthansa, Germanwings’ parent. The reports note that at the time, he also suffered anxiety attacks, and was under psychiatric care for 18 months.
Media outlets also reported that the torn up note declaring him “unfit to work” bore a code for depression. Under German law, the doctor would have been prohibited from presenting the note to Lubitz’s employer. Under Lufthansa regulations, Lubitz had no obligation to report the note to his supervisors.
Lufthansa has acknowledged that Lubitz took a several-month-long break from pilot training, but it said Friday it was unaware of the doctor’s declaration.
A variety of mental health problems could disqualify pilots from medical certification under FAA guidelines. They include an established medical history or clinical diagnosis of personality disorder, psychosis, bipolar disorder and substance dependence.
But Andrew Brown, president of the Academy of Organizational and Occupational Psychiatry and the lead psychiatrist for the Boston Police Department, said that symptom-based exclusions alone are insufficient and that a more sophisticated functional evaluation is a better approach.
That would include evaluating a person’s judgment, interpersonal relationships, emotional stability and capacity to endure stress.
“You’re not really looking for symptoms per se,” Brown said. “You’re much more focused on getting deeper understanding of how a person copes with adversity.”
Other federal programs require sophisticated screenings.
Aspiring astronauts must pass complete background investigations, multiple rounds of personal interviews and a long-duration space flight physical before being selected for NASA’s training program.
“When qualifying astronauts for space flight, NASA must look at not only what is required for normal spaceflight operations, but also what each astronaut would require should serious, even life threatening, problems develop,” according to NASA’s website.
“For maximum crew safety, each crew member must be free of medical conditions that would either impair the person’s ability to participate in, or be aggravated by, space flight, as determined by NASA physicians.”
Pentagon officials said each military service is responsible for screening its own people.
The Air Force, for example, which controls both nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons-carrying bombers, determines the mental and physical fitness of the men and women who fly the bombers and manage the missile silos.
Air Force personnel who handle sensitive or expensive equipment must go through enhanced physical and mental health screening in what’s called the Personnel Reliability Program.
“Obviously, there is extensive screening for anybody responsible for handling multimillion-dollar weapons systems, including nuclear weapons,” said Maj. Pete Hughes, an Air Force spokesman.
The Personnel Reliability Program is so strict that airmen subject to it are not allowed to buy over-the-counter medications for cold symptoms or other minor health problems.
“It’s definitely more controlled and monitored for people who have these responsibilities,” Capt. Brooke Brzozowske, an Air Force spokeswoman, said of the oversight of nuclear forces personnel.
Hughes said that special forces pilots are also subject to stricter standards than other pilots.
But some policies discourage job applicants from reporting mental health issues.
David Roscow, a spokesman for the Amalgamated Transit Union, which represents operators of buses, light rails, subways, and ferry boats, among other transit workers in the U.S. and Canada, said that screening policies often bar those who are being treated for mental health issues but not those who haven’t sought treatment.
Brown said those policies may make people who know they are ill hesitant to seek treatment.
“You have a general reluctance of employees to disclose what they consider private information to their employers,” Brown said. “Some people will not come forward for treatment as a result of those concerns.”
Contributing to this report were Andrea Ahles of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Rick Montgomery of The Kansas City Star, Ely Portillo of The Charlotte Observer, James Rosen of the Washington Bureau and Matthew Schofield, who contributed from Lausanne, Switzerland.
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