Co-pilot crashes plane in French Alps
On Tuesday, March 24, the world was shocked to hear of another aviation disaster that left no survivors. The fourth deadly aviation accident in recent memory – with the earlier including the still-missing Malaysian Airlines Flight 370, Malaysian Airlines Flight 17, shot down over Ukraine, and AirAsia Flight 8501, which crashed into the Java sea during bad weather – this recent tragedy is the latest to leave no survivors.
Germanwings Flight 9525 departed from Barcelona, Spain, and was supposed to land in Düsseldorf, Germany. During the flight, however, after the Captain had left the cockpit momentarily, co-pilot Adreas Lubitz purposely locked the Captain out and crashed the airliner into the French Alps, killing all 144 passengers and six crewmembers. So far, forensic experts have found isolated DNA from 78 individuals on the flight, leaving almost half of those on-board still unaccounted for.
It is believed that Lubitz may have suffered from depression, as well as vision problems, which he hid from his employer.
An article for The New York Times suggested that Lubitz’s “personal writings,” found at the scene of the crash, showed “a confused young man who feared failure and was scared he was going to lose his job because of his vision and mental health problems.” Prescription antidepressants and multiple doctor notes were found in Lubitz’s apartment, but none of these conditions were known to his employers or co-workers prior to the crash.
Lubitz had dreamed of becoming a pilot since he was 14; it’s believed that when he began experiencing trouble with his eyesight, he sank further into depression, fearing he would not be able to fly. Lubitz did, however, pass his annual recertification medical examination for physical health in the summer of 2014.
Since the crash, aviation authorities around the world have implemented new policies which mandate that two crew members, one of whom is to be a pilot, must remain in the cockpit at all times. This policy change is only one of many which have been designed to prevent airliner tragedies.
…some policies …played a negative role in this most recent crash.
Unfortunately, some policies – such as reinforcing and locking the cockpit door – played a negative role in this most recent crash. The doors are designed so that they lock automatically, and to regain entry, a request is sent to the cockpit. If there is no response from the cockpit, the pilot can enter an emergency code to gain access after 30 seconds. The person remaining inside the cockpit, however, can block the emergency access code and prevent the door from opening.
Blocking the emergency code causes a five-minute lockdown. This is believed to have been the method used by Lubitz to keep the Captain out of the cockpit and to drive the plane into the Alps.
Airliners have, in the past, banned pilots with mental illnesses from flying, but with improvements in understanding mental illness, policies had been changed to allow pilots with mild conditions, or those on antidepressants, to fly. The hope in changing the policy was to encourage pilots with mental health issues to come forward and seek treatment.
Reports that mental illness played a role in this crash have brought these policies under scrutiny. Now, the debate around mental health policies is focusing on finding a more effective approach to mental illness in the aviation community.