Pilots and Depression

Prior to the Germanwings accident, many people had known of Copilot Lubitz depression and some, such as his girlfriend had even spoken up about it. The spotlight of the investigation is not so much on the fact that Lubitz smashed the aircraft into the side of a mountain but on the airline or airlines in general for not spotting this depression and implementing safeguards. The pilots mental illness was documented and he was at the time taking injections to diminish the effects of depression. Lubitz had given hints at his mental illness starting from the time of his initial training. A very odd behavior for a training pilot would be to take a leave of absence midterm, exactly what the pilot did, someone in the flight department theoretically should have seen it.

In addition to the Germanwings accident, Japan Airlines Flight 350 was also found to be attributed to a pilot mental illness condition. The Japan Airlines captain forced the engine controls of his DC-8 into reverse over a bay where the plane eventually crashed resulting in 24 deaths. The pilot was never found guilty however due to reasons of insanity. This brings up multiple questions for me, primarily however though, if this pilot was able to avoid prosecution due to insanity he must have shown signs of his mental illness prior to the incident.

Currently to operate an aircraft at the airline level,  it requires that the pilot undergo a medical evaluation every 6 or 12 months depending on age. A mental evaluation is part of the medical however most pilots will attest that there is really no mental health check in place. The inspection is complected typically by the doctor being able to hold a normal conversation with the pilot. I believe that there is a need for reform to avoid another potentially catastrophic disaster. The medical examiners should be required to engage a pilot through a psychiatric method to evaluate their mental state, rather than being able to check a box based on whatever the particular examiner feels is necessary enough.

It is worth noting that if airline pilot mental illness was more accepted and pilots felt as if they could condition their problem with a treatment, that could spell disaster for the FAA and american air carriers. The liberal approach in allowing pilots to work as a professional pilot with known mental illness problems is just a problem waiting to happen, there are restrictions on who or who cannot qualify for a pilots license for this very reason. If a pilot with a mental problem was allowed to fly on a condition that he treats his illness in a sense to me that is similar to just putting a band aid on the  problem and not actually fixing it, a potential ticking time-bomb.


Abend, L. (2015, April 25). Germanwings co-pilot -- an accident waiting to happen? - CNN.com. Retrieved September 18, 2015.

Almendrala, A. (2015, March 27). U.S. Pilots Expose Major Holes In Mental Health Screening Process. Retrieved September 18, 2015.

Seiji Katagiri | Murderpedia, the encyclopedia of murderers. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2015, from http://murderpedia.org/male.K/k/katagiri-seiji.htm