European agency proposes tougher medical checks for pilots
BERLIN — The European Aviation Safety Agency on Tuesday proposed tougher medical examinations for pilots, including better mental health assessments, in response to last year’s Germanwings crash.
Pilot Andreas Lubitz locked his captain out of the cockpit and flew a plane into a French mountainside on March 24, 2015. All 150 people on board Flight 9525 from Barcelona to Duesseldorf were killed.
Lubitz had suffered from depression several years previously, but authorities and his airline later deemed him fit to fly. They have said they didn’t know that his mental health troubles had returned in the months before the crash.
The aviation agency recommended strengthening pilots’ initial and subsequent medical examinations “by including drugs and alcohol screening, comprehensive mental health assessment, as well as improved follow-up in case of medical history of psychiatric conditions.”