A320 Down In France (Germanwings)

[Guest]

Good morning CP...

No problem with including the full quotes going forward.

As for the issue addressing people with mental disorders, while I agree that they should get help, and they should be integrated into society as much as possible, there are situations/jobs where they shouldn't be in charge of matters affecting others.

Flags go up, but sometimes in an effort to be accommodating of the needs of the patient, too much risk is put on the general public. Political correctness can only go so far imho.

I guess it depends upon the type of mental illness and the job, but who determines what the danger level is? For example how about a person who works in the maintenance department and works on the aircraft systems and has a metal disorder (bi polar for instance)? Should she / he be banned from doing this type of work? In other words how far would the action you recommend go? Following is a partial list of "Adult Mental Disorders".

ADULT DISORDERS Common Disorders

• Alcohol/Substance Abuse
• Alcohol/Substance Dependence
• Anxiety Disorders
• Adult Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD/ADD)
• Bipolar Disorder: Overview, Symptoms
  • Major Depressive Episode
  • Hypomanic Episode
  • Manic Episode
  • Mixed Specifier (Formerly Mixed Episode)
• Depression
• Generalized Anxiety Disorder
• Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
• Panic Disorder
• Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
• Schizophrenia
• Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD, see Depressive Disorder with Seasonal Pattern)
• Social Anxiety Phobia

Dissociative Disorders

• Depersonalization Disorder
• Dissociative Amnesia
• Dissociative Fugue
• Dissociative Identity Disorder (MPD)
• Dissociative Disorder Not Otherwise Specified (NOS)

S

[Don Hudson]

Op-Ed: Inside the Head of Those Inside the CockpitBy Contributor April 1, 2015

By Mark L. Berry / Published April 1, 2015

I’ve never been found unfit to fly before. I was attempting to work an international trip only weeks after my airline’s biggest tragedy—TWA Flight 800—that had claimed the life of my fiancée Susanne. She was one of 230 passengers and crew onboard a Boeing 747 in 1996 when it exploded in flight. So, instead of flying to Milan as planned, I was introduced to an entire, seemingly clandestine, department that was operating within my airline—Special Health Services—when the captain of my scheduled flight suddenly threw me off our trip.

As the anger inside me welled, during my long trek from the cockpit of my flight that would depart without me, to the office of my boss—The New York Chief Pilot—I began a personal mental health odyssey through both corporate and federal oversight that required me to deal with my extreme grief and survivor’s guilt, but that eventually allowed me to return to my airline career.

Looking back, I realize now that I would not have sought my airline’s assistance voluntarily. Like many pilots, I felt that mental health counseling carried a stigma of weakness. I am here to tell you that I was wrong, even though that stigma was very real, and it still needs to be further dismantled in order to encourage more pilots to seek help, or empower fellow co-workers to nudge each other in the direction of professional assistance.

Unfortunately, many pilots still struggle with deep personal issues alone, and perceive any intervention as a threat to our hard earned, yet fragile careers. It seems the Germanwings Flight 9525 first officer considered his flying career over when he tore up the medical leave notification he’d received. I don’t believe he fully understood there were methods of treatment available that could potentially allow his career to continue, after whatever level of healing he required. If a pilot can cause the deliberate destruction of his aircraft and trusted passengers in response to the threat of losing his ability to fly, the Germanwings tragedy begs the question: what can be done when a pilot comes undone?

I am a commercial airline pilot with first hand knowledge of how a major airline handles mental health issues. I was hired by my first regional airline in 1986 and my first major airline in 1988. In those days, most pilots had no idea what resources we had available to assist us with stress, our personal lives, and mental health issues. We were a stoic bunch (occasionally even arrogant) who prided ourselves on self-reliance. No problem was too big. But even during that era, we maintained an informal, collective watch over each other. Pilots are a group who collectively don’t just go to work—we live for our time in tiny cockpits capable of moving through three-dimensional open space, and we dedicate the bulk of our adult lives to this noble profession.

Pilots fear and loathe being grounded. We have to take check rides and pass FAA mandated medical exams every year, and either one could clip our wings. And as a stoic group, we tend to secretly resent placing our own well-being in anyone else’s hands. But I learned though personal experience that the people we can be forced to see—when our personal and/or professional worlds turn upside down—have as much interest as we do in helping return us to the cockpit—but only when we are ready.

So, where did I go after I was grounded? My airline had an administrative leave category named GMF Hold (General Manager of Flight – Hold) that allowed my schedule to be cleared, while my paycheck continued to arrive. I was a first officer at the time, and my job became meeting with a psychiatrist instead of meeting up with a captain. My journey became an internal odyssey instead of external trip.

I was not happy about my new situation. After I sat in an intimidating office (compete with an oversized desk, diplomas, and plenty of open space—not the cramped comfort of a cockpit that I was used to), my appointed psychiatrist inquired, “Mark, why do you think you are here?”

I replied, “Obviously, I didn’t volunteer. This was TWA’s idea. I didn’t do anything except try to do my job and I got grounded. I’ll be honest, I’m **bleep** off about it.”

He was not initially reassuring. Here is an excerpt from my memoir 13,760 Feet—My Personal Hole in the Sky that reveals that initial meeting with my career flashing before my eyes:

“It is good that you are being honest,” the doctor said, “and I will be honest with you. Do you know that your career is now in my hands?” For a split second I envisioned him as President Harry S. Truman, a wooden plaque with The Buck Stops Here displayed on his desk. Then I returned to reality, and our regularly scheduled program. He was serious. Ever since my fiancée Susanne died, everything had taken on a surreal quality. “You cannot go back to fly until I allow it. How does that make you feel about our meeting today?”

“Even more **bleep** off.”

“Yet you are here. I have nothing on my schedule except to speak with you for the next two hours. Your airline feels it is important that we spend some time together and investigate your feelings.”

Two hours? I had figured forty-five minutes, max. In fact, after passing the countdown test (he made me count backward from 100 by sevens, as an initial test of my cognitive ability), I thought I’d be out the door with a back-to-work pass in ten more minutes, tops. Investigation is the word that really made me mad, and more than a little nervous. People are investigated for things that they’ve done. I didn’t do a damn thing except receive the news that Susanne had died. My job was now in jeopardy and my mental health was in question. As a pilot I felt I could fly through anything, even emotional trauma. (It’s worth repeating), most of us are hard-wired that way.

“Tell me doctor, why do I have to have my head examined because my fiancée died?” I asked. “What did I do? Exactly nothing, that’s what. The woman I love most in the whole world died, and because it’s on one of my airline’s airplanes, I’m not allowed to fly them anymore? What kind of bullshit, vindictive logic is that?”

“Mark, that is what we need to explore,” he explained, inching his chair away from his desk, crossing one leg over the other as though he were David Letterman’s next guest. “You have been delivered a great wrong. Life isn’t fair and you do not need me to tell you this. But if you want to examine your situation, look at it from your chief pilot’s point of view. The airline knows you are suffering, and I can see that in you right away—it is in your face, your flat affect, the mask that tries to hide your feelings—but would he be doing his job to provide safe air travel if he did not first offer you all the help at his disposal before returning you to work?”

I leaned in and squared my shoulders in what would be an aggressive stance, except that I was sitting. “So this is a liability issue then? My chief can’t let me fly until someone signs off on me? He’s worried about the airline’s insurance premiums more than the needs of one of his own pilots? I’m an employee, and I’ve now lost more than anyone can ever be expected to suffer on my company’s aircraft, and right now I want to, I need to, go out and go flying.” I thumped his desk to punctuate my point. “I’ve had enough taken away from me. I’m not giving up my wings too.”

“If it makes you feel any better to look at it that way, then yes, I am the one who must risk deciding if you are OK to fly. Someone has to be liable for you, and your company is paying me a good sum of money to take that responsibility. Is that not what you also do? Do you not accept the responsibility of every passenger’s life when they board your airplane? So you and me, we are the same in that regard. We are decision-makers and others accept our judgment as part of our job. Other people look to us to act in their best interest, but let us look at this another way. You receive a checkride occasionally, do you not?”

“Twice a year—once in the simulator and once on the line while flying passengers. Also every time I upgrade or transition into a new seat or aircraft type.”

“Well then, you are not so foreign to this concept. Consider this discussion to be an oral check ride, just like you have to do with the FAA when you learn a new airplane.”

I began feeling conflicted. Part of me was still angry that I had to face his tribunal at all. Another part of me admired the way he was asserting his authority with references that I could relate to. I sat back to think this through. “You seem to know a lot about my job. Are you a pilot?”

“I am a licensed psychiatrist; that means I have been to med school, not flight school. But I am also a Zen Master in Japan and the chosen authority for your airline’s mental health. You are not the first pilot to sit across the desk from me—far from it, in fact. And, I have sent a great deal of them back to work—when they are ready.”

“I’m ready now. I’ve told you that.”

“You are only ready when I have made that call. We have much to talk about.”

“So what are you planning on doing next, make me count backwards using only prime numbers?”

“Would you like to do that?”

“Hell no.”

“Good, because there are other ways.” He pointed to a glass case full of every assortment of pill I could imagine. It looked like the Lite-Bright toy I played with as a child, with little colored dots of various sizes and shapes. Except these must be prescription narcotics and other mind-altering capsules. I had no interest in a trip down the rabbit hole.

“I’m not taking any pills. You can forget about that. I already told you, I didn’t do anything and I’m not going to be drugged for any reason. Even my job isn’t worth that.”

The only pills I’d taken were sleeping pills the first couple weeks after the crash—over-the-counter Unisom that my friend Chip recommended. Before I tried them I couldn’t relax; I just stared through the night. If I did sleep, I think my eyes were still open. I wasn’t going to admit any of that to Dr. Oshiro (a pseudonym). All I wanted was his signature on the proper line and to be done with this interrogation. I would cooperate in order to graduate, except I was careful not to give him any excuse to label me unfit to fly.

“Well now you know why you were sent to see me specifically. If I give you any of the drugs in this case, as I often do with my non-pilot patients, you cannot fly while using them and for a good deal of time afterwards—in many cases a minimum of one year.

“To hell with that idea.”

“Exactly, Mark. That is why for pilots there is another way. We must break through your subconscious block, but without using drugs. Do you know how we can do this?”

“Sorry, Doc—no clue. I’m sure you’re going to tell me though.”

“Not exactly. You are going to tell me. What is the one thing that you can do while you are awake or while sleeping?”

“Think about sex.”

“Very clever. I knew your mind was working, but think again. This is a physical thing. We all do it without thinking, and we can control it when we do. We are both doing it right now.”

He followed up that statement with an exaggerated deep breath. I almost laughed when it occurred to me this was like an open-book test. He was feeding me the answer.

“Breathing.”

“Precisely.” He made a one-finger silent snap in the air, like an orchestra conductor signaling a cymbal strike, to emphasize his point. “I would like to teach you how to do it better, more deeply, with your chest and your gut. My American medical degree taught me how to change the chemicals in the brain, but I prefer the natural Eastern ways if my patients are willing to work hard at learning them. It is your choice. Would you like to learn how to restore your emotional balance through breathing, or with a prescription?”

I let my face droop with an almost sleepy expression, as if I’d just sat through a record-length lecture. “OK, give me the yoga lesson and send me back to work.”

“Mark, you may be skeptical, but keep in mind that we both know you are deeply grieving. It is now part of your life. I need you to learn to do it well. When you fly, you feel it and you fly well. Everything in life that you do, you must do well. When you **bleep**, a primal need, **bleep** well.”

This caught me by surprise, but he was serious. He continued, “To accept your life again as it is now, you must learn to grieve well.” He was staring at me to make sure I received his message. “I want you to take the next few weeks to learn and practice breathing exercises and call me if you have any questions or concerns, then come back and see me. I do not need you to be free from grief to return to flying. I only need to know that you are on your way.”

“I take it you aren’t letting me fly to Europe this week.”

“No, but I am prescribing my breathing workbook. I am going to show you the basics now to get you started, then read what I have written and let your internal journey begin.”

The emphasis of this excerpt is to show that there is already a mechanism to assist emotionally struggling pilots with our mental health while continuing our careers, but even more needs to be done to educate pilots to the process. You’ll notice the doctor said, “I do not need you to be free from grief to return to flying. I only need to know that you are on your way.” And this was all the way back in 1996. Now, the airline I fly for has a greater awareness of its pilots’ needs, and the available mental health resources and printed handouts are taught and distributed during each recurrent training cycle.

Airline pilot mental health moved to the forefront in June 2011 with a program of trained volunteers called Project Wingman. This is a joint venture between my company and the pilot union. It’s led by Captain Charlie Curreri, who also a licensed professional counselor. The Project Wingman team helped establish a 24/7 confidential emergency mental health hotline in case a pilot needs to address a mental health issue about him or herself, or is concerned about another crewmember’s psychological well being. This program’s success is measured though numerous success stories. Names are withheld in confidence, but Project Wingman Director Curreri assures me that many pilots have received the help they’ve needed without fear of reprisal or loss of license, especially when it came to taking medications for mental health reasons.

While some are approved, other prescription medications may still keep pilots out of the cockpit for a while; but new features like shared sick leave (pilots can donate some of our vacation time to another pilot-in-need in order to increase the length of his/her sick leave pay) demonstrate how much of a fraternity (ladies included) our profession still is. The emphasis is on giving each pilot the time and resources to cope with his or her issues that may interfere with cockpit duties. But I don’t know if this level of resource has spread yet to every airline.

For the most part, commercial pilots are self-policing for continued mental health, but as I have demonstrated, at-risk pilots need to be identified when they are off his/her game, and introduced to Project Wingman—our pilot-advocating-system that is already in place. Word still needs to spread among pilots that the primary goal of aviation mental health professionals is to assist us with our overall career, even if that requires temporary removal from the cockpit.

Fear of the unknown may have contributed to the absolute despair that the co-pilot on the Germanwings flight might have experienced when he perceived his imminent medical grounding. We’ll never know for sure, but he could have perceived that his medical certificate suspension equated to losing his entire aviation dream. But if we educate even our newest pilots right from initial training that there is a caring team of mental health professionals waiting to assist us should we need it, perhaps the natural reluctance against seeking help—taking an internal journey of self-discovery and healing—can be somewhat diffused.

We do have advocates who can treat us on the ground so that we can be our best while up in the air, but we need to learn more about them—and the grounding/reinstatement process—before all pilots feel comfortable engaging the process when needed. The traveling public should be re-assured that flight crew mental health is not a subject that is being ignored by the world’s airlines. Dealing with depression, grief, and other mental challenges, and then successfully returning healthy pilots to the cockpit, is an evolving process.

Under the spotlight of our recent industry disaster, the focus on pilot mental health programs will hopefully help serve to make pilots more open to therapy and/or prescribed medication. To prevent another Germanwings tragedy from occurring, airlines and federal regulators need to continue developing special health services, and through promoting successful treatment, continue earning the trust of the entire pilot profession.

****

Mark is an MD80 Captain and former Check-Airman. He is also a regular contributor for Airways magazine. His memoir 13,760 Feet—My Personal Hole in the Sky is available in paperback and Kindle formats and is about to be released as a full-production, 15-hour audiobook (infused with 41 original companion songs) on Audible.com. His author website is: http://marklberry.com

Lufthansa released the following statement Tuesday:

The co-pilot of Germanwings flight 4U9525 interrupted his pilot training at the Flight Training Pilot School for several months. Thereafter the co-pilot received the medical certificate confirming his fitness to fly.

To ensure a swift and seamless clarification, Lufthansa – after further internal investigations – has submitted additional documents to the Düsseldorf Public Prosecutor, particularly training and medical documents. These also include the email correspondence of the copilot with the Flight Training Pilot School. In this correspondence he informed the Flight Training Pilot School in 2009, in the medical documents he submitted in connection with resuming his flight training, about a “previous episode of severe depression”.

Lufthansa will continue to provide the investigating authorities with its full and unlimited support. We therefore ask for your understanding that we cannot provide any further statements at this time, because we do not wish to anticipate the ongoing investigation by the Düsseldorf Public Prosecutor.

[moeman]

Isn’t it just a bit ironic that our society would go through all sorts of conniptions hoping to find a satisfactory way to deny people suffering from depression, or any number of other mental disorders access to firearms and at the same time move to reverse a long standing rule and allow pilots sharing a similar diagnosis to operate commercial aircraft?

Aircraft don't kill people, people kill people.

[Guest]

The Associated Press
Published Thursday, April 2, 2015 10:32AM EDT
Last Updated Thursday, April 2, 2015 10:47AM EDT

PARIS -- French prosecutors say the second black box recorder from the Germanwings jet crash in the French Alps has been found.

An official in Marseille Prosecutor Brice Robin's office says he will give a news conference Thursday evening about the discovery.

Based on recordings from the first black box, investigators believe co-pilot Andreas Lubitz intentionally crashed Flight 9525 on March 24.

The second black box is the data recorder and contains readings for nearly every instrument.

[Jaydee]

Dusseldorf, Germany (CNN)Analysis of a tablet device belonging to Germanwings Flight 9525 co-pilot Andreas Lubitz shows he researched methods of suicide on the Internet in the days leading up to the crash, the public prosecutor's office in Dusseldorf, Germany, said Thursday.

Prosecutor Christoph Kumpa said that on one day, Lubitz also "searched for several minutes with search terms relating to cockpit doors and their security measures."

http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/02/europe/france-germanwings-plane-crash-main/index.html

[cp fa]

Does anyone else find it odd that a pilot would be googling cockpit door security? Isn't that the kind of thing that a qualified pilot should already know?

[Guest]

Germanwings co-pilot increased descent rate prior to crash

By: JON HEMMERDINGER

WASHINGTON DC

Source:

in 7 hours

The flight data recorder from the Germanwings Airbus A320 that crashed in the French Alps on 24 March shows that the co-pilot on several occasions increased the speed of the aircraft's descent, according to French accident investigation agency BEA.

The agency, which is now reviewing the FDR, adds that the co-pilot also set the autopilot to descend the aircraft to an altitude of 100ft.

Work continues to determine the specific factual progress of the flight, says the BEA.

The aircraft, operating flight 9525 from Barcelona to Dusseldorf, began a steep descent shortly after reaching cruising altitude and then crashed into high terrain, killing 150 passengers and crew.

Investigators have said the co-pilot locked the captain out of the cockpit and then intentionally crashed the aircraft.

[Don Hudson]

There it is. Hope against hope that it was some "medical" event...

Photos of the SSFDR @ http://www.bea.aero/en/enquetes/flight.gwi18g/mediatheque.php#siteaccident

[DEFCON]

The news is now reporting that the data recorder indicates the F/O adjusted the AS on the way down several times, which probably means speed changes were the result of varying the VS.

[Zan Vetter]

"Hiring a 300-hr MCPL holder and putting him in an A320 will hopefully be viewed as equally as problematic."

Hiring 300 hour beginners and placing them in the right seat of B-1900's is equally problematic when it comes to competence.

Agreed but the industry loves cheap labour. Easier to tell a newbie he isn't worth anything than it is to wonder why you have a "pilot shortage" created solely by your refusal to pay to attract talent. Why hire an experienced pilot when you can sign a HS grad as a cadet and basically own his entire career?

There is and never will be a shortage of pilots, just like there won't be an oil shortage. It just gets more expensive to find them, or at least it should now because airlines have mined the bottom of the barrel pretty aggressively with the MCPL, cadet, and pay-to-fly schemes that exist today.

[Don Hudson]

I remain astonished that ICAO lept on board the dumbing-down of piloting competency with the commercially-driven "MCPL" stupidity from the vary beginning. We might expect that kind of enthusiasm from IATA but not from that organization. And P2F? We've had that in Canada for half a century, if I correctly recall an operation on the north side of the field at Malton Airport...

However, to continue a theme begun earlier here, there is a 'band-of-brothers" notion, a code of ethics if you will, that attends this, and all professions, along the lines of "first, do no harm". There is no way that a cadet school can convey such things - cadet schools and their enablers who facilitate the MCPL are purely instrumental, technical solutions that cannot convey, teach or provide that which cannot be taught but must be inculcated, mentored and lived in experience.

Our industry, with, in my opinion, our collective compliance but more through corporate dismissal of pilot association concerns regarding standards, has set aside such unwritten, unquantifiable but necessary professional values in favour of teaching mere "how-to" in order to legally put "98.6" in the seats to push the buttons. The opportunity for maintaining and increasing flight safety is gained or lost at that point.

You can't do dumb things down or lower standards in aviation without result.

The dots are still too far apart, the act too rare* to attempt a solid connection between such "training & licencing" methods and murder-suicide by a 600hr "pilot" but the connection of such events and a continuance of the present system is only a matter of time.

*Earlier, I did some elementary calculations on such rarity, using the standard that aeronauticists use when working in statistical probabilities of failure of designs, etc. That factor is 10^-9, or -0.0000000001. Given departures over the past few decades and comparing murder-suicides by commercial aircraft, the probability is approximately 10^-8.

[DEFCON]

“Our industry, with our collective compliance and corporate dismissal of pilot association concerns regarding standards, has, in my opinion, set aside such unwritten, unquantifiable but necessary values in favour of teaching mere "how-to" to legally put "98.6" in the seats.”

Sadly, pilot associations are also a big, if not the major part of the problem too.

Take for example the ‘Pilot Mentor Program’ at Jazz, itself a reiteration of an earlier version at AC, which have been endorsed by pilot associations for reasons unknown. The program allows a Captain to serve as a mentor pilot to the FO that doesn’t have an ATP allowing him to accumulate pretend PIC time while serving as second in command and use it to satisfy the ATP PIC requirements. No matter how someone attempts to justify programs that fast track want-to-be ATP’s to airline pilot seats, the modifications all represent a lowering, or degradation of the standard that only serve the corporate interest, not the notion of piloting being a profession.

[Don Hudson]

DEFCON,

Re, "Sadly, pilot associations are also a big, if not the major part of the problem too."

Yes, that's what I meant by, "Our industry, with, in my opinion, our collective compliance...", but I've participated in negotiations in the past and "wins" are extremely difficult in this regard. To me it is the very same thing as, (without exaggeration), the fifty-plus year fight on fatigue risk management for crews. Transport is still dithering, while the world calls for one standard on psychological health and says such a standard must apply to all to avoid unfair advantage.

I know very well that air carriers must make money to stay in business. Through long experience, I know too that, for those who don't comprehend aviation and think because they're either a shareholder or a manager at an airline they know how to save money. Aviation is an oddball when it comes to determining where to save money - why are the fundamentals always the first targets?

Saving money for crewing airplanes by replacing talented, keen and experienced crews with cadets with limited hours to whom this is just a job, (just as some airlines have made it), is like saying we'll also save on gas by not giving you as much of it.

Same dumb logic, but one is obvious, (to most, anyway...), while the other is far more difficult to justify and accept. I have a CALPA magazine from around 1960 that makes the same argument.

Years ago Crandall took a few pickles off the food tray to save money...oh, wait, what food tray?

Anyway, this is truly a day of heartbreak to finally have to accept what I know was obvious to many but so hard to comprehend. It is far worse than 9/11.

[DEFCON]

"Anyway, this is truly a day of heartbreak for me and for my profession, to finally have to accept what I know was obvious to many but so hard to comprehend."

I couldn't agree more.

I think there's a lot of blame for the present state of affairs that can be passed around, but in the end analysis, we pilots have collectively failed ourselves. The only comfort I find is in knowing it's all finally coming to a close for me.

The next big concern; hoping and praying the economy, currency and retirement investments will outlive me.

[Don Hudson]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/germanwings-plane-crash/11516678/Germanwings-plane-crash-EU-found-issues-with-German-aviation-regulator.html

[Boney]

I think its time to label this idiot, the f/o, a terrorist. A terrorist kills civilians for no apparent reason. He planned this. He didn't just snap. He knew he was going to lose his dream.

Just as the media turn off the cameras when a streaker runs across the football field to deny him/her any fame, it's time to stop showing his pictures or state/show his name to deny him his intent of making a statement.

He's not one of us professional pilots. Time to put him in the garbage bin.

IMHO.

[J.O.]

I disagree for two reasons. Terrorists are motivated by an agenda or a desire to wield influence over those they would oppose. They typically leave "a note" claiming responsibility and their reasoning. Also, to deny the existence of Lubitz is to deny that there may be others out there who are quietly struggling with their own personal battles. Prevention is more than enough reason to frequently remind us of all the details of this tragedy.

[neverminds]

If any good can come of of this tragedy, hopefully the EU will finally approve anti depressant medication use for pilots. SSRI medication was first approved for pilots in Australia, which has the best aviation safety record in the world. Coincidence? Canada followed suit about 10 years ago and the FAA followed suit about 5 years ago. In Europe pilots seeking help for anxiety/depression are still grounded while on the medication and can only regain their license after coming off meds. But that often results in relapse.

[Boney]

I agree that pilots that have mental problems should/must be helped in dealing with their demons and get them back to work.

However, this Germanwings f/o told his girlfriend that he indend to do an ack that will make the world remember him, or something to that effect. His intent was to kill the innocent. Putting his pictures up on the screen and continuously calling his name is doing just that. Instead, focus on the Captain and crew that tried to save their passengers. After all, that's our profession.

He is in the same league as those bloody terrorists, in my book. No honour.

[DEFCON]

The man was criminally insane and motivated by depression, but not a terrorist.

Why did the regulators change the rules and allow pilots to fly after a medical assessment determines pharmaceuticals are required to regulate mood & behaviour? You can be certain it wasn't because anyone had a better understanding of the disease, or the drugs involved in treatment.

[Moon The Loon]

I agree that pilots that have mental problems should/must be helped in dealing with their demons and get them back to work.

However, this Germanwings f/o told his girlfriend that he indend to do an ack that will make the world remember him, or something to that effect. His intent was to kill the innocent. Putting his pictures up on the screen and continuously calling his name is doing just that. Instead, focus on the Captain and crew that tried to save their passengers. After all, that's our profession.

He is in the same league as those bloody terrorists, in my book. No honour.

Ya, that's what the media reported but after learning of his long-time girlfriend, I wondered if this "other" flame was making this up in order to get her 15 minutes.

[Lakelad]

.

Germanwings co-pilot may have spiked captain’s drink

Thu Apr 09, 2015 - CBS MarketWatch
By Yaron Steinbuch

Rogue co-pilot Andreas Lubitz may have spiked his captain’s coffee with a substance to force him to leave the cockpit for the toilet — allowing the Germanwings flier to lock the door and send the plane into a mountain in the French Alps.

Lubitz, 27, changed the autopilot setting in the Airbus A320 to just 100 feet in his mass murder-suicide plot that claimed the lives of all 150 people aboard.

German prosecutors believe he may have added the chemical to Capt. Patrick Sondheimer’s coffee to make sure he’d leave his seat, the Daily Mail reported.

Investigators are examining Lubitz’s computer to find clues about the possible spiking. He had used his computer to research suicide methods and cockpit door safety, officials have found.

Lubitz reportedly urged Sondheimer to use the toilet — reminding him that he hadn’t taken a toilet break in Barcelona, Spain, before taking off for Duesseldorf.

It has been reported that Lubitz had broken off his pilot training for several months in 2009 and upon restarting, informed the Lufthansa pilot training school he had overcome a period of severe depression.

Lufthansa LHA, +0.16% , the parent company of Germanwings, has said he passed all medical and suitability tests upon restarting training.

Meanwhile, the German aviation authority Luftfahrtbundesamt, or LBA, said Thursday that correct procedures were followed when Lubitz was awarded his pilot’s license, Reuters reported.

The LBA said over the weekend that it had been unaware of Lubitz’s depression. Lufthansa said that under regulations in effect until 2013, it was not required to inform the LBA.

Lufthansa head Carsten Spohr met with LBA president Joerg Mendel this week.

“We came to the joint conclusion that the correct procedures for awarding a pilot’s license were followed,” the LBA told Reuters on Thursday.

.

[DEFCON]

"The LBA said over the weekend that it had been unaware of Lubitz’s depression. Lufthansa said that under regulations in effect until 2013, it was not required to inform the LBA."

Political correctness gone awry?

[Guest]

World | Wed Apr 15, 2015 11:48am EDT Related: WORLD

German air controllers urge remote control of planes after crash

FRANKFURT/BERLIN

(Reuters) - The German air traffic control authority has urged the aviation industry to develop technology that ground staff could use in an emergency to take remote command of a plane, which could help prevent a repeat of a Germanwings crash last month.

Investigators believe that co-pilot Andreas Lubitz locked his captain out of the cockpit and deliberately crashed the Germanwings plane into a French mountainside on March 24, killing all 150 people onboard.

"We have to think past today's technology," Klaus Dieter Scheurle, head of the Deutsche Flugsicherung air traffic control authority, said at a press conference on Wednesday.

Such a system could be used in an emergency on the ground to take remote control of a passenger plane and safely land it, he said.

"I wouldn't say it's the simplest solution though," he said, adding any such technology was likely to come only in the next decade.

Pilots associations are skeptical.

German pilots' union Vereinigung Cockpit said remote control could be open to abuse.

"We also have to ask whether such a solution would really be an improvement, after all it's the pilots who are sitting in the cockpit and they're the ones with all the information," VC spokesman Markus Wahl said.

The British Airline Pilots' Association (BALPA) also urged caution.

"We must act with careful consideration to ensure new safety risks or concerns are not created, such as those raised by the vulnerability of any form of remote control of a passenger aircraft," a spokesman said.

Since the Germanwings crash, European airlines have implemented a rule that two people must be in the cockpit at all times and Germany has set up a task force with the aviation industry to consider changes to medical and psychological tests for pilots.

(Reporting by Alexander Huebner and Victoria Bryan; Editing by Noah Barkin and Susan Thomas)

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/04/15/us-france-crash-germany-airtraffic-idUSKBN0N61C720150415?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews

[popcan]

I would think that having the ability to override the cockpit door lock from the ground (SOC office) could be an easier option. At least it would give the locked out crew member a chance to regain control. I know, both crew would have that knowledge but that would force the crew member doing the lock out to take action, kill or injure, the crew member trying to gain access. Perhaps that might make someone back down from a suicide. Just a thought.