fb-pixelAfter Germanwings crash, investigators call for new pilot health rules - The Boston Globe Skip to main content

After Germanwings crash, investigators call for new pilot health rules

The crash site of the Germanwings Airbus A320 in the French Alps.Guillaume Horcajuelo/European Pressphoto Agency

LE BOURGET, France — 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 an inquiry on the Germanwings plane crash.

The French investigation found that Germanwings copilot 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.

But none of the doctors told authorities of any concerns about Lubitz’s mental health, France’s BEA air accident investigation agency said, including one who referred Lubitz to a psychiatric clinic just two weeks before the crash.

Advertisement



“Experts found that the symptoms [two weeks before the crash] could be compatible with a psychotic episode,” said Arnaud Desjardin, leader of the BEA investigation. This information “was not delivered to Germanwings.”

Because Lubitz didn’t inform anyone of his doctors’ warnings, the BEA said in a statement, “no action could have been taken by the authorities or his employer to prevent him from flying.”

The agency also said Lubitz was using antidepressants at the time of the crash.

The US National Library of Medicine notes on its entry for Citalopram that children and young adults who take the drug can become suicidal “especially at the beginning of your treatment and any time that your dose is increased or decreased.”

Germanwings and its parent company Lufthansa have strongly denied any wrongdoing in the crash, insisting that Lubitz was certified fit to fly.

But relatives of those killed have pointed to a string of people they say could have raised the alarm and stopped Lubitz .

The BEA investigation is separate from a manslaughter investigation by French prosecutors seeking to determine eventual criminal responsibility for the crash of Flight 9525 from Barcelona to Dusseldorf.

Advertisement



The agency found that the certification process failed to identify 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.

The new BEA safety recommendations also included peer support groups for aviation workers and other measures to reduce the stigma and fear of losing a job that many pilots face for mental health issues.