Airlines largely rely on pilots 'self-monitoring' mental health

Aviation experts say psychological screening is minimal for pilots. But after a French prosecutor said Thursday that the co-pilot of Germanwings Flight 9525 apparently locked the pilot out of the cockpit and crashed the passenger plane into a mountain, pilot testing is under higher scrutiny.

Officials have not called the actions of co-pilot Andreas Lubitz, 27, a suicide.

Carsten Spohr, CEO of Lufthansa, parent airline of Germanwings, told reporters that Lubitz was 100% qualified to fly the plane and "his flight performance was perfect." He also said, "We don't have psychological exams."

In an interview with CNN, Spohr noted that Lubitz never gave any indication that he was mentally ill.

"We have at Lufthansa a reporting system where crew can report without being punished their own problems or they can report about problems of others without any kind of punishment," Spohr said. "That hasn't been used either in this case, so all these safety nets we are so proud of here have not worked in this case."

Airlines largely rely on self-monitoring when tracking the mental health of pilots. Each country's civil aviation authority has its own rules for health screenings, according to Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Alison Duquette.

The International Civil Aviation Organization health-screening process largely mimics the FAA's regulations, according to Greg Raiff, the CEO of Private Jet Services, a private aviation company. Lufthansa flights would have been flying under those guidelines, Raiff said.

Erin Bowen, chairwoman of the department of behavioral and safety sciences at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, Ariz., said doctors ask pilots about stress and how they are feeling during routine medical examinations every six months or a year.

But she said the tests aren't sophisticated enough to give doctors the confidence to prevent someone from flying.

"It's not like a blood test that tells you you're sick," Bowen said. "That level of ambiguity, between the legal liability and the moral liability of telling someone they can't do their job because you think that a test said they might be a risk — the field is not there yet."

Only a handful of pilot suicides have been cited as the cause among the hundreds of commercial crashes through the years. Bowen called them "less than rare — very, very uncommon."

The FAA requires U.S. pilots over the age of 40 to undergo a physical exam every six months, and younger pilots to have annual exams. The pilot is expected to disclose any mental disorders or health issues on an FAA medical form that accompanies the exam. And the pilot's doctor, called an aviation medical examiner, could order psychological testing.

The FAA could fine a pilot up to $250,000 if they falsify information about physical or psychological conditions, or medications.

"It's mostly 'Is your heart OK? Are you structurally fine?,' '' said Dave Funk, a retired Northwest Airlines captain who now works for the aviation consulting firm Laird & Associates. At the pilot's initial hiring there's a formal mental screening process, but after that airlines mostly rely on self-reporting, he said.

"We self-monitor pretty well," Funk said, adding that incidents of pilot suicide are very rare. "When you think about the millions of flights we fly each year, that's a pretty good record."

The Air Line Pilots Association, a union representing 50,000 commercial pilots, said pilots' behavior and psychological well-being are observed and evaluated during initial employment interviews and periodic medical exams every six months or a year.

"During flight, pilots and flight attendants operate as a coordinated crew and are in a position to observe each other's behavior, and airlines have a procedures in place to allow crew members to express concerns they may have about an individual's actions so they may be appropriately addressed," the union said in a statement.

Photos: Tragedy in the French Alps

John Cox, a former commercial pilot who now heads consulting company Safety Operating Systems, said it's possible the crash will spur debate about stricter psychological exams, but that a program would be difficult to adopt.

"It's possible, but that's going to be very hard to do," Cox said. "Normally it's a peer-review process. I don't know how they're going to do it."

Bowen said the Germanwings case could spark interest in finding ways to discuss mental illness without stigmatizing workers.

"It's hopeful that the tragedy will continue to open up the discussion about how we deal with and treat and respond to mental illness in our professional group — how we deal with it when it affects workplace safety and security," Bowen said.

However, not all agree self-monitoring is the best way to ensure the safety of passengers.

"There are few acts of violence that can harm as many people as a pilot deciding to crash an airplane and I feel strongly that the mental health of these folks should be better regulated," Raiff said.

One of the reasons customers use private jets is that they can require their pilots to have regular mental health screenings, he said.

"Lufthansa is a quality airline that goes back many, many decades and runs one of the tightest ships. I would get on a Lufthansa flight any day," Raiff said. "But as an aviation expert ... I would be accepting the fact that the airline has no idea if either one of [the pilots] has a death wish."

"No airline would really know," he said.

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