A320 Crash: The Co-Pilot Wanted the World To Know His Name — (Le Figaro)

Saturday, March 28th, 2015
SSRI Ed note: Germanwings pilot on citalopram, mirtazapine and zoplclone locks captain out of cockpit, crashes Airbus A320, killing 150.

To view original article click here  (translated below)

Le Figaro

March 28, 2015

According to a former girlfriend, co-pilot Andreas Lubitz wanted everyone to know his name.  Mary W. is quoted in the German newspaper Bild: “When I heard about the accident, I remembered a phrase that he used:  “One day I will do something that will change the system and then everyone will know my name and remember it.”

“He spoke little about his illness”

“At the time I did not understood what he meant, but now it’s clear,” says the stewardess, 26, who had an affair in 2014 with the pilot of the Lufthansa budget subsidiary.

“He did not talk much about his illness, saying only that he was in psychiatric treatment,” she continued.

Off work due to depression

Reportedly, Andreas Lubitz was off work due to depression March 16 to 29. He hid his illness from his employer by not handing in the documentation [from his physician] to his superiors.  He therefore should not have been flying on the day of the crash.  Prosecutors in Düsseldorf confirmed that “a doctor’s note, dated the day of the tragic events, which was torn up, indicated his incapacity for work, and support the hypothesis that he hid his illness from his employer and his co-workers. ”

Antidepressants found at his Home

According to our sources, German investigators found antidepressants in the home of Andreas Lubitz, the first officer who deliberately crashed Airbus A320 last Tuesday. His medical records were also seized by the police.

These developments place the personality of the co-pilot Andreas Lubitz, 28, at the heart of the investigation. He joined Lufthansa in 2013 and had only 630 hours of flying time since he completed his training.

 “Clues”

Thursday night, German investigators searched  Andreas Lubitz’s apartment in Düsseldorf , and his parents’ home in Montabaur, where he lived part of the time.  Someone, whose face was hidden by a coat, accompanied investigators.  Security forces also took the CPU of a computer, as well as two large blue bags and a full carton.  Marcel Fiebig, spokesman for the Düsseldorf police, talked about the search. “We seized clues.  These are various objects and documents,” he stated.  “We’ll see if (the seized clues) provide definite evidence. We have to study everything,” he said.

Investigators also heard from his former girlfriend who explained that [Lubitz] had been battling depression for 6 years.

Suicide?

The hypothesis of suicide is most likely at this stage of the investigation.  No evidence has been found so far, such as a suicide note, that indicates the act was premeditated.

On Friday, March 27, Manuel Valls said on iTélé that “everything supports the hypothesis of a deliberate act of the co-pilot, even though “we have to wait for the outcome of the investigation”, this seems like a “crazy, incomprehensible, horrible act”.  “How can we imagine that a pilot, who people trust –  many look up to them as heroes –  could be capable of closing the cockpit door to prevent the pilot from returning to the cabin, and steering the plane into the mountain?” Manuel Valls continued.

Andreas Lubitz had passed all the psychological tests required by Lufthansa.  So how could he fly on antidepressants when this is forbidden?    There are flaws in how the medical status of pilots is monitored.

A New Look at Safety

This Germanwings crash raises many security issues. The European Aviation Safety Agency recommends that there always be two people in the cockpit.  Five companies already enforce this policy:  Air France, Air Transat Canada, Norwegian Air Shuttle, Icelandair and Easyjet.

Since the 2001 attacks, cockpit security has been strengthened.  The doors cannot be opened from the outside except with a code that only the pilot and co-pilot know. However, there is also a latch which can lock the cockpit security door from the inside.  It is this feature that may have prevented the pilot from re-entering the cockpit before the crash.

Normal conversation During the Early Part of the Flight

The first black box recovered at the scene of the accident on March 25 revealed the situation of a deliberate crash caused by the first officer.

Airbuses carry two black boxes. One records the technical parameters of the flight, the second records conversations and all the sounds that occur inside the cockpit.  It is this second that has been found and analyzed.

At the beginning of the flight both drivers can be heard conversing normally in German.  Around 10:30 am, the captain left the cockpit, probably to go to the toilet.

The driver then tried to get back into the cockpit, but the door was locked.  He banged on the door, and could be heard shouting the name of the co-pilot, ordering him: “Andreas, open the door, open the door!”.  He then went all out and tried to break the door down with an ax, without success.  Because they recognized the captain’s voice shouting, the investigators were able to determine which of the two pilots was in control of the aircraft at the time of the crash, according to a source close to the investigation.

“Wilful Destruction”

The first officer deliberately set the autopilot to a controlled descent, which can only be interpreted as a “wilful plan to destroy” the aircraft, said the prosecutor on Thursday, March 26.  Brice Robin said that he had not answered any of the communications from traffic control and that he had uttered no words.  But, he added, the sound of his breathing is audible throughout the last phase of the flight, which means that the first officer was alive.

Listen to the whole interview given by Brice Robin .

Investigation continues

Investigators working at the scene of the crash are trying to find the second black box and identify the bodies removed from the mountain, by bringing families to the crash site Thursday afternoon .  The long, tortuous work of body identification will probably take several weeks because no bodies were recovered intact .

The Families of the Victims are Caught Between Grief and Anger

The families of the victims, mostly German and Spanish , will gather on March 26 in the crash area.  Overcome with grief, they are also consumed by anger at the thought that one man could have determined the fate of their loved ones this way.

 

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Crash A320 : le copilote voulait que le monde connaisse son nom

L’Actualité24.com

28 mars, 2015

Selon une ancienne petite amie du copilote, Andreas Lubitz voulait que tout le monde connaisse son nom. Mary W. déclare dans le quotidien allemand Bild : “Lorsque j’ai appris cet accident, je me suis souvenue d’une phrase qu’il avait prononcée: ‘Un jour, je ferai quelque chose qui changera le système et alors tout le monde connaîtra mon nom et s’en souviendra”.

“Il parlait peu de sa maladie”

“Je n’ai pas compris alors ce qu’il avait voulu dire, mais aujourd’hui, c’est clair”, poursuit cette hôtesse de l’air de 26 ans qui a eu une liaison avec le pilote de la filiale low-cost de la Lufthansa en 2014.
“Il ne parlait pas beaucoup de sa maladie, disait seulement qu’il était en traitement psychiatrique”, poursuit-elle.

En arrêt de travail pour dépression

Selon nos informations, Andreas Lubitz était en arrêt de travail pour dépression du 16 au 29 mars. Il avait caché sa maladie à son employeur en ne remettant pas le document à ses supérieurs. Il n’aurait donc pas dû voler le jour du crash. Le parquet de Düsseldorf a confirmé que “des certificats d’incapacité de travail, qui ont été déchirés, qui étaient récents et même datés pour le jour des faits, appuient l’hypothèse qu’il a caché sa maladie à son employeur et à ses collègues de travail.”

Des antidépresseurs retrouvés

Toujours selon nos informations, les enquêteurs allemands ont retrouvé au domicile d’Andreas Lubitz, le copilote qui a délibérement crashé l’Airbus A320 mardi dernier, des antidrépresseurs. Son dossier médical a également été saisi par la police.

Ces nouveaux éléments placent la personnalité du copilote, Andreas Lubitz, 28 ans, au cœur de l’enquête. Il était entré chez Lufthansa en 2013 et ne comptait que 630 heures de vol à son actif depuis la fin de sa formation.

“Des indices”

Les enquêteurs allemands ont fouillé jeudi soir les deux domiciles d’Andreas Lubitz, à Düsseldorf où il avait un appartement et à Montabaur, où il vivait une partie du temps chez ses parents. Une personne, le visage caché sous un manteau, en est sortie avec les enquêteurs. Les forces de l’ordre sont également reparties avec l’unité centrale d’un ordinateur, ainsi que deux grands sacs bleus et un carton visiblement pleins. Le porte-parole de la police de Düsseldorf, Marcel Fiebig, s’est exprimé sur ces perquisitions. “On a saisi des indices. Il s’agit de divers objets et papiers”, a-t-il raconté. “On verra si (les indices saisis) apportent finalement des éléments de preuve. On va étudier tout cela”, a-t-il précisé.

Les enquêteurs ont également entendu son ancienne petite amie qui a expliqué que l’homme suivait depuis 6 ans un traitement pour lutter contre sa dépression.

Un suicide ?

L’hypothèse du suicide est la plus plausible à ce stade des investigations. Quant à savoir si son geste était prémédité, aucune lettre d’adieu ni aucun indice en ce sens n’ont été retrouvés.

Manuel Valls a déclaré vendredi 27 mars sur iTélé que “tout s’orient(ait)” vers l’hypothèse d’un acte délibéré du copilote, même si “nous devons attendre la fin de l’enquête”, évoquant un “geste fou, incompréhensible, horrible”. “Comment peut-on imaginer qu’un pilote en qui on a toute confiance -ce sont des héros pour beaucoup- précipite, après avoir fermé la porte ou empêché le pilote de rentrer dans la cabine, l’avion dans la montagne ?”, a poursuivi Manuel Valls.

Andreas Lubitz avait validé tous les tests psychologiques de la Lufthansa. Mais comment  pouvait-il voler sous antidépresseurs alors que cela est interdit ?

Il existerait des failles dans le suivi médical des pilotes :

Nouvelles consignes de sécurité

Ce crash de la Germanwings posent évidemment bien des questions de sécurité. L’Agence européenne de la sécurité aérienne recommande désormais la présence constante de deux personnes dans le cockpit. Cinq compagnies ont d’ores et déjà décidé d’appliquer la mesure : Air France, la canadienne Air Transat, Norwegian Air Shuttle, Icelandair et Easyjet.

Depuis les attentats de 2001, la sécurité du cockpit a été renforcée. Les portes ne peuvent plus être ouvertes de l’extérieur sauf par un digicode que seuls le pilote et son co-pilote connaissent. En revanche, il y a également un loquet qui permet de verrouiller la porte blindée de l’intérieur du cockpit. C’est donc ce dispositif qui a sans doute empêché l’ouverture du cockpit avant le crash.

Conversation normale en début de vol

C’est l’examen de la première boîte noire recueillie sur les lieux de l’accident le 25 mars qui met en lumière le scenario du crash délibérément provoqué par le copilote.

Un Airbus emporte à son bord deux boîtes noires. L’une enregistre les paramètres techniques du vol, la seconde grave les conversations et tous les éléments sonores qui se produisent à l’intérieur du cockpit. C’est cette seconde qui a été retrouvée et analysée.

On y entend les deux pilotes converser normalement en allemand, au début du vol. Vers 10h30, le commandant de bord quitte le cockpit, sans doute pour se rendre aux toilettes.

Le pilote a tenté ensuite d’entrer de nouveau dans le cockpit, mais la porte était bloquée. Il a essayé de la débloquer, criant le prénom du copilote. “Andreas, ouvre cette porte, ouvre cette porte !”, lui a-t-il intimé. Il a, à coups de hâche, tenté le tout pour le tout, sans succès. C’est ainsi que les enquêteurs ont identifié, grâce aux cris du commandant de bord, lequel des deux était aux commandes de l’avion au moment du crash, selon une source proche de l’enquête.

“Une volonté de détruire”

Le copilote a actionné volontairement les commandes de descente, de façon qui peut être analysée “comme une volonté de détruire” l’avion, a expliqué jeudi 26 mars le procureur. Brice Robin a précisé qu’il n’avait répondu à aucune des sollicitations du contrôle aérien et qu’il n’avait prononcé aucun mot. Mais, a-t-il ajouté, un bruit de respiration est audible pendant toute la dernière phase du vol, ce qui signifie que le copilote était vivant.

Ecoutez toutes les informations données par Brice Robin.

Les recherches continuent

Les enquêteurs qui travaillent sur les lieux du crash tentent de retrouver la deuxième boîte noire et d’identifier les corps évacués de la montagne, grâce à des prélèvements effectués sur les familles jeudi après-midi. Le long, très long travail d’identification des corps prendra probablement plusieurs semaines car aucun corps n’a été retrouvé intact.

Les familles des vicitmes entre deuil et colère

Les familles des victimes, notamment allemandes ou espagnoles, se recueillent depuis le 26 mars dans la région du crash. Endeuillées, elles sont aussi gagnées par la colère à l’idée qu’un homme seul a fait basculer le destin des leurs.

 

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The Wall Street Journal – Europe News

Andrea Thomas

Updated March 27, 2015 8:13 a.m.

Evidence collected at his apartment did not include suicide note or indication of motive

BERLIN—The Germanwings co-pilot who appeared to intentionally crash an airliner into a French mountainside this week, killing himself and 149 passengers and crew, received a note from a doctor excusing him from work but apparently tore it up, a German prosecutor said Friday.

The prosecutor said evidence collected in a search of Andreas Lubitz’ Düsseldorf apartment on Thursday afternoon did not include a suicide note and gave no indication of a political or religious motive for his apparent decision to crash the plane.
“However documents were confiscated that contained medical information indicating an existing medical treatment,” the Düsseldorf prosecutor said in a statement.Documents found in the apartment showed that Mr. Lubitz received a note from his doctor for the day of the incident excusing him from work, but that he tore up the note and did not inform Lufthansa about his condition, according to the prosecutor’s statement.“Doctor’s notes that were found that were current and for the day of the incident support the assumption, based on a preliminary evaluation, that the deceased concealed his illness from his employer and work environment,” the prosecutor said in the statement. Earlier, Germany’s Federal Aviation Office said that Mr. Lubitz had a medical condition noted in his pilot’s medical certificate, but the spokesman couldn’t say whether the record was related to his mental or physical health because the information was confidential.Mr. Lubitz’s record was last set in July 2014. The medical certificate gets updated annually, according to spokesman Holger Kasperski.
Lead French prosecutor Brice Robin said on Thursday he suspected Mr. Lubitz locked the captain out of the cockpit, programmed the A320’s descent and slammed it into an alpine ridge at 400 miles an hour with a “willingness to destroy this aircraft.”

His employer and people who knew him said Mr. Lubitz was a quiet man who had a passion for gliders and competitive running. Mr. Lubitz had joined the LSC Westerwald flying club in Montabaur, his hometown, when he was about 14 and started gliding as a teen in the gentle hills around Montabaur, club members said. Situated just outside Montabaur, the flight club is a modest but well-kept building that includes a hangar and a club room with plain wooden chairs, a bar and long tables.

“He was a quiet person…not someone who tried to be the center of attention,” the club’s Mr. Rücker said.

Jörg Kämpflein—a flight club board member who has been with the club since 1993—said he was “surprised, astonished” by the allegations surrounding Mr. Lubitz. These, he said, “in no way” fitted his personality. Klaus Radke, president of the club, said Mr. Lubitz had renewed his pilot’s license to fly alone when he last visited.

 

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Germanwings Crash Raises Questions About Shifting Ideas of Pilot Fitness — (New York Times)

By ERICA GOODE and JAD MOUAWAD

[It is frustrating to note that when the use of antidepressants by pilots was approved, the clear underlying assumption of authorities, reflected in this article, is that SSRI antidepressants are an effective treatment for depression – a questionable assumption – and that the real issue is the pilot’s underlying “mental illness”. There has been no acknowledgement that the drugs are known to cause suicidal thinking and behavior, in some people in some circumstances, and may be independent contributors to destructive thinking. –  SSRIstories Ed.]

Aviation agencies in Europe and the United States once banned all pilots from flying if they disclosed a mental illness to their employers.

But in recent years, bowing to advances in scientific understanding and a growing public awareness that common mental disorders like depression are treatable, regulators loosened those restrictions, allowing the use of certain antidepressants for a small number of pilots and permitting some pilots whose illnesses were mild to stay on the job. In doing so, agency officials said, they hoped to encourage pilots who were experiencing problems to come forward and seek treatment.
Now the crash of Germanwings Flight 9525 on Tuesday has raised questions about how well those policies work and whether airlines and regulators are doing enough to detect pilots who are too mentally ill to fly.
The authorities have said that Andreas Lubitz, the co-pilot who is believed to have intentionally crashed the German aircraft, killing himself and the other 149 people aboard, had a mental illness and hid the diagnosis from his employer. The exact nature of his disorder remains unknown, but Mr. Lubitz apparently sought treatment for vision problems that may have jeopardized his ability to work as a pilot. Still uncertain is whether there is a link between Mr. Lubitz’s vision problems and his psychological issues. On Saturday, an official said that the police had found antidepressants during a search of his apartment in Düsseldorf.

Since the crash, European airlines have scrambled to require that two people be present in the cockpit at all times, a rule already in place in the United States. But many experts said the focus should now be on improving the process of hiring and screening pilots to better guard against someone like Mr. Lubitz getting into the cockpit in the first place.
The programs currently used by airlines and regulators on either side of the Atlantic, aviation experts and psychiatrists said, leave much to be desired. Screening exams are given on a yearly basis and often merely nod to mental health issues, including only a few questions about depression or other illnesses. The exams are often conducted by general practitioners with no psychiatric expertise.
In addition, most programs are based on an honor system, relying on pilots to volunteer information about problems they might have. And to do that, several psychiatrists said, they must overcome the stigma that still clings to mental illness, one that remains strong in commercial aviation, a profession with deep roots in the military that values a cool head and steady hand under pressure.
The screening process for pilots “really falls short for people who are involved in the public’s safety,” said J. Reid Meloy, a forensic psychologist who consults on threat assessments for corporations and universities.
Germanwings Crash Raises Questions About Shifting Ideas of Pilot Fitness – NYTimes.com

The practice of screening only once a year is a particular problem, he said, because any number of life events — the breakup of a relationship, the death of a loved one or other setbacks — can affect mental functioning. Rather than coming out of nowhere, suicide often represents a convergence of troubled strands. Investigators who delve into a suicide victim’s background — interviewing relatives, co-workers and friends in what is called a psychological autopsy — almost always find a troubled history and often uncover hints about suicidal intentions that were overlooked or ignored by others.
A study of eight deliberate airplane crashes from 2003 to 2012, for example, found that five of the general-aviation pilots had intimated their plans to others beforehand.But while suicide is rare, depression is one of the most common mental disorders: Government surveys suggest that one in 20 American adults have an episode of major depression each year and one in 10 take antidepressant medications.And identifying a person whose condition poses a threat to public safety is not always easy, said Dr. Andrew Brown, president of the Academy of Organizational and Occupational Psychiatry.

“You have to get a sense of who this person really is, of what their coping mechanism is, of what their defenses are, in terms of how they characteristically deal with adversity,” Dr. Brown said. “It goes without saying that you have to ask them specifically if they have ever had thoughts of suicide.”

Screening systems in Europe closely mirror those imposed by regulators and airlines in the United States, aviation experts said, and in most cases, the tests that would-be pilots must pass to be licensed are focused far more on physical than mental health.

Dr. Warren Silberman, a former manager of aerospace medical certification for the Federal Aviation Administration, said that in the United States, pilots applying for a license must fill out an online medical questionnaire. Only three questions on the form deal with mental health, he said.
“There is no specific psychological testing,” he said.Before they are licensed, pilots must undergo a medical exam, conducted by a doctor trained and certified by the aviation agency. Some airlines impose additional screening procedures, but they vary from company to company. Active pilots are required to have a medical screening once a year until they turn 40 and then twice a year after. Only when pilots are found to have mental health problems are they sent to a psychiatrist or psychologist for evaluation or treatment.But the system, Dr. Silberman and others said, leaves pilots on an honor system, albeit one reinforced by penalties to discourage them from concealing any health issues that could affect their fitness to fly, including mental illness. Pilots who falsify information or lie about their health face fines that can reach $250,000, according to the F.A.A.

But Peter Goelz, a former managing director of the National Transportation Safety Board, said the system left a lot of wiggle room for pilots. For example, pilots are allowed to choose doctors, and can pick someone who might be less likely to report any difficulties.

“They know which guys are more cordial to their concerns and which are not,” Mr. Goelz said. “My guess is that the industry and the F.A.A. will look at this closely.”

Martin Riecken, a spokesman for Lufthansa, the parent company of Germanwings, said that airline’s screening procedures were similar to those in Europe and the United States.

Pilots are rigorously screened for physical problems before they are hired and fill out a questionnaire intended to vet their psychological fitness. Examination by a psychologist or psychiatrist is not a routine part of screening, he said.

As in the United States, pilots are required to report to the company any medical or psychiatric condition that might make them unfit to fly, Mr. Riecken said. But he added that in Germany, a private doctor who is consulted by a pilot is under no legal obligation to inform the airline about the pilot’s physical or mental state.

Seeking help from outside doctors is a common practice among pilots in Europe, said Dr. Alpo Vuorio, a researcher at the Mehiläinen Airport Health Center in Finland who has studied depression in pilots and pilot suicides. And few pilots inform the airlines that they have done so.

Without a strict reporting system, accountability suffers, he said. “People start to find services all around the country and even from different countries, and then it’s lost,” he said.
In Mr. Lubitz’s case, the Düsseldorf University Hospital said in a statement that he had been seen at their clinic in February and a final time on March 10 for what it called a “diagnostic evaluation.” The hospital refused to give further details, citing Germany’s privacy laws for medical records, including those of the dead, but denied reports that the co-pilot had been treated for depression. Prosecutors said that several doctors’ notes stating that Mr. Lubitz was too ill to work, including on the day of the crash, were found at his home; one of the notes had been torn up.Because pilots and flight crews spend so much time working together in close quarters, airlines often rely on employees to monitor their colleagues’ behavior and raise concerns when a pilot appears unfit for flying.“It’s very hard for mental illness to hide under those circumstances,” said Dr. William Hurt Sledge, a professor of psychiatry at Yale who has served as a consultant to the F.A.A., as well as to the Air Line Pilots Association and a number of carriers.

Yet Dr. Sledge conceded that the screening tools available were inadequate to the task of detecting a pilot determined to hide any signs of distress. Mr. Lubitz was heard on the flight recorder chatting amiably with the captain before locking him out of the cockpit.

And given the stigma attached to depression, many pilots who have the illness do hide their symptoms, a fact that led the F.A.A. in 2010 to revise its policies, allowing pilots to take antidepressant drugs in some circumstances and continue flying.

“We know more today about the science of the medications being given and we know a lot more about depression itself,” said Randy Babbitt, the F.A.A. administrator at the time, in announcing the new policy. The European aviation agency followed suit a few years later.

Dr. Silberman, the former F.A.A. medical manager, said that the agency’s thinking evolved over years and that many within the agency were reluctant to change its policies, worried about the side effects of the drugs.

“This was an effort to let guys know that once you start getting better and you are treated, you can fly again,” he said. But he added that the agency was careful in its decisions about who could keep flying and that pilots taking the medications must follow a treatment plan and be closely monitored.

Dr. Ryan Shugarman, a psychiatrist in Alexandria, Va., who performs mental health evaluations of pilots and air controllers for airlines and the F.A.A., said he had seen one case in which a pilot had suicidal thoughts, but never one where a pilot threatened to bring down a plane.

“My experience is that there’s a lot of support among the aviation community for getting treatment,” he said, adding that he supported the F.A.A.’s change in policy because before it was made, pilots were going to outside doctors for mental health treatment and concealing it from their employers.

Whether the crash of Flight 9525 will prompt calls for the agency to revert to its earlier conservatism remains to be seen.

“I hope not,” said Dr. Vuorio, the Finnish researcher. “This is a good practice, in good hands.”

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The Latest: French urge more open medical system for pilots — (Boston Herald)

Sunday, March 13, 2016

LE BOURGET, France — The Latest on the French air accident report on the 2015 Germanwings plane crash (all times local):

4 p.m.

French air accident investigators are recommending that European aviation authorities adopt a more American-style system on mental health issues to encourage pilots to come forward about what medications they are taking.

The BEA agency says authorities in the U.S., Britain, Australia and Canada allow pilots to continue to fly while taking specific medications to treat depression as long as they are under clear medical supervision. Currently this is not done in Europe.

The French agency, in a report on the 2015 Germanwings plane crash, says co-pilot Andreas Lubitz was using several antidepressants when he crashed a plane into the Alps, killing all 150 people on board.

Germanwings says it had no knowledge of his illness, and BEA says the many doctors who treated him did not bring any concerns about his mental health issues to authorities.

3:25 p.m.

A union representing German pilots is welcoming recommendations from French aviation investigators aimed at avoiding a repeat of the Germanwings plane crash, while stressing the need to protect patient confidentiality.

Markus Wahl, a spokesman for the Cockpit union, said in a statement Sunday that French investigation agency BEA’s safety recommendations are “a balanced package of measures” and should be implemented in full.

The BEA has urged that laws be changed so medical workers must report concerns about pilots’ mental health to authorities.

Cockpit said patient confidentiality must be protected and that “strict data protection standards” should be applied in drawing up checklists of criteria setting out what illnesses doctors must report. It said there needs to be a “careful balance” that secures “an improvement that is reliable for all sides without damaging the trust between a doctor and their patient.

2:30 p.m.

A German investigator says there’s no need to change German medical privacy laws despite concerns that they contributed to the crash of a Germanwings flight flown into a mountain by a suicidal co-pilot.

Germanwings co-pilot Andreas Lubitz had been treated by several doctors in the weeks before the March 2015 crash that killed 150 people, including one who referred him to a psychiatric clinic fearing a psychotic episode, according to a report released Sunday by France’s BEA air accident investigation authority.

The report urges world aviation authorities to require doctors to tell authorities when a patient’s health could threaten public safety.

But Johann Reuss of Germany’s air accident investigation agency told The Associated Press “there is no need to change the law.”

Germany’s criminal code says that doctors can be punished with a fine or up to a year to in prison for breaching patient confidentiality. Reuss says “it might not be easy” to loosen the rules, and suggested that authorities should instead focus on giving doctors checklists to prevent similar scenarios with pilots.

2:10 p.m.

Germanwings parent Lufthansa is pledging to support the implementation of any new safety measures prompted by French investigators’ probe of last year’s plane crash.

France’s BEA accident investigation agency on Sunday recommended that aviation agencies draw up new rules requiring medical workers to warn authorities when a pilot’s mental health could threaten public safety. Germanwings co-pilot Andreas Lubitz, who had been treated for depression in the past, deliberately crashed his Airbus A320 into the French Alps last March.

Lufthansa said in a brief statement that “ensuring the highest possible flight safety was and remains our utmost priority.”

It added that “the company will of course continue to cooperate with the relevant authorities and will support the possible implementation of concrete measures” based on the BEA report.

1:25 p.m.

France’s air accident investigation agency says Germanwings co-pilot Andreas Lubitz was using antidepressants when he crashed the plane carrying 150 people into the Alps.

A report released Sunday by France’s BEA investigation agency says traces of anti-depressive medications Citalopram and Mirtazapine were found in Lubitz’s system as well as the sleeping aid medication Zopiclone.

The U.S. 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.”

Lubitz was 27 when he crashed the plane.

BEA chief Remi Jouty acknowledged that it’s possible for pilots to be flying while using antidepressants that they don’t declare to their employers.

12:25 p.m.

French aviation investigators say one factor leading to the Germanwings plane crash might have been a “lack of clear guidelines in German regulations on when a threat to public safety outweighs” patient privacy.

At a news conference Sunday in Le Bourget, Arnaud Desjardin, leading the investigation for the BEA agency, described Germany’s privacy rules as being especially strict. He says doctors fear losing their jobs if they unnecessarily report a problem to authorities.

Desjardin says “that’s why I think clearer rules are needed to preserve public security.”

The BEA report also recommends measures to remove the fear of losing a job that many pilots face for mental health issues. It says “the reluctance of pilots to declare their problems and seek medical assistance … needs to be addressed.”

But Desjardin says the investigators determined that systematic, deep psychological tests every year for all pilots would be “neither effective nor beneficial.”

12:10 p.m.

French investigators say that airplane cockpit rules should not be changed despite a crash by a suicidal Germanwings co-pilot who locked his pilot out of the control room.

The BEA air accident investigation agency said Sunday that it’s still just as important to protect the cockpit from attackers elsewhere in the plane. Current cockpits are equipped with a code system to prevent the kind of hijackings that occurred on Sept. 11, 2001, in the United States.

BEA investigator Arnaud Desjardin said “a lockage system cannot be created to prevent threats coming from outside and inside the cockpit.”

Many airlines and regulators have issued changes since the March 2015 Germanwings crash in the French Alps and now require at least two people to be in the cockpit at any given time to prevent similar crashes.

11:50 a.m.

French air accident investigators say the pilot certification process failed to identify the risks presented by Germanwings co-pilot Andreas Lubitz.

The BEA investigation agency, in its report on the March 2015 crash, said Lubitz had been referred by a doctor to a psychiatric clinic two weeks before he crashed a plane into the French Alps, killing 150 people.

Arnaud Desjardin, leading the BEA investigation, told reporters that experts found Lubitz’s symptoms at that time “could be compatible with a psychotic episode.”

He says this information “was not delivered to Germanwings.”

11:40 a.m.

French air accident investigators say a doctor referred Germanwings co-pilot Andreas Lubitz to a psychiatric clinic two weeks before he crashed a plane into the French Alps, killing 150 people.

The BEA investigation agency, in releasing a report Sunday on the March 2015 crash, said multiple doctors who treated Lubitz in the weeks before the crash did not inform authorities of concerns about his mental health.

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

Investigators found that Lubitz intentionally crashed Flight 9525 en route from Barcelona to Duesseldorf.

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

11:25 a.m.

French air accident investigators are recommending that world aviation bodies define new rules to require that medical professionals warn authorities when a pilot’s mental health could threaten public safety.

The recommendation comes after a Germanwings co-pilot deliberately crashed a jet into the French Alps last year, killing 150 people.

The BEA investigation agency released a report Sunday into the Germanwings crash with several recommendations to avoid such accidents in the future, notably about pilot mental health and screening before a pilot is certified.

Germanwings co-pilot Andreas Lubitz had been treated for depression in the past, and the investigation found that he had consulted dozens of doctors in the weeks before the crash.

9:15 a.m.

French air accident investigators are issuing a report Sunday about what led to the March 2015 Germanwings jet crash — and their recommendations on how to prevent a repeat scenario.

Investigators say co-pilot Andreas Lubitz intentionally crashed the plane into the French Alps, killing all 150 people on board Flight 9525 from Barcelona to Duesseldorf. Most victims were German and Spanish.

The report is likely to address cockpit door rules, because Lubitz locked the pilot out of the cockpit thanks to measures introduced to prevent attackers from accessing a plane’s controls. It is also expected to recommend tougher reporting requirements for pilots’ doctors and urge relaxing medical privacy restrictions in cases of a threat to public safety.

 

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Andreas Lubitz was suffering a ‘psychotic episode’ during Germanwings suicide crash — (International Business Times)

By Fiona Keating

March 13, 2016 13:05 GMT

Germanwings co-pilot Andreas Lubitz had traces of the anti-depressive medications citalopram and mirtazapine in his system, as well as the sleep medication zopiclone, according to a French air accident report that was released today, 13 March. He had also been referred to a psychiatric clinic by a doctor two weeks before he crashed a plane into the French Alps, killing 150 people.

French air accident investigators say pilot screening processes failed to identify the risks presented by Lubitz’s health. Arnaud Desjardin, the leader of the Bureau d’Enquêtes et d’Analyses (BEA) investigation, told reporters that medical experts found Lubitz’s symptoms at that time “could be compatible with a psychotic episode”. Lubitz had been previously treated for depression.

The BEA’s report about the March 2015 plane crash states that Lubitz consulted multiple doctors in the weeks leading to the crash, but none of them informed authorities about their concerns about his mental health. And as Lubitz did not inform Germanwings about his doctors’ warnings the BEA said “no action could have been taken by the authorities or his employer to prevent him from flying”.

At a news conference in Le Bourget, Desjardin blamed Germany’s strict privacy laws, for causing the doctors to fear they would lose their jobs if they reported Lubitz to authorities.

“That’s why I think clearer rules are needed to preserve public security,” Desjardin said.

Psychological testing no help

The BEA report also recommends measures to remove pilot’s fears they will be dismissed for suffering mental health issues. It says “the reluctance of pilots to declare their problems and seek medical assistance… needs to be addressed”.

But Desjardin says the investigators determined that systematic, deep psychological tests every year for all pilots would be “neither effective nor beneficial”.

However, BEA investigators say airplane cockpit rules should not be changed, even though a suicidal Lubitz locked his pilot out of the control room before taking the plane into its deadly descent into the French Alps.

The agency said that it was still important to protect the cockpit from attackers elsewhere in the plane. Current cockpits are equipped with a code system to prevent the kind of hijackings that occurred on 11 September 2001 in the US

Desjardin said “a lockage system cannot be created to prevent threats coming from outside and inside the cockpit”.

But many airlines and regulators have already issued changes since the Germanwings crash, and now require at least two people to remain in plane’s cockpits at all times to prevent similar crashes.

Investigators found that Lubitz intentionally crashed Flight 9525 en route from Barcelona to Duesseldorf. The BEA investigation is separate from a manslaughter investigation by French prosecutors which is seeking to determine criminal responsibility for the crash.