Pilots and Mental Illnesses
1.) Germanwings Flight 4U9535 crashed because the first officer locked the captain out of the cockpit and flew the aircraft into the ground. Everyone on board was killed. The aircraft was an Airbus A320. The pilot on question that caused this, Andreas Lubitz, had initially suspended his flight training early on due to an extreme episode of depression. After investigators searched his residence, they found a doctors note that determined Lubitz was unfit to fly and that he was hiding his condition from Germanwings.
2.) Another accident similar to the Germanwings accidnet, was done by a single man in a small airplane on February 18, 2010. The aircraft in question was a Piper Dakota. It was being flown by Joseph Stack III. He deliberately flew his aircraft into an IRS complex in Austin, Texas. He left a suicide note online that was saved by 27 people before the accident. Investigators determined his motive was his displeasure with the government and its various agencies, including the IRS. Stack went through a divorce earlier in his life and had to file for bankruptcy.
3.) The FAA states that "airline pilots to undergo a medical exam with an FAA-approved physician called an Aviation Medical Examiner (AME) every 6 or 12 months depending on the pilots age". At the general aviation level, all you are required to have at the minimum is a doctors note stating that you are fit to fly, before all you needed was a third class medical to fly. I think that the current requirements for pilots are satisfactory. If the FAA wished to institute new regulations that may be more effective, I would suggest more scientific based tests that use machines to analyze peoples behavior and brains. A scan of the brain, known as an MRI could determine weather a pilot was feeling depressed or not. However this would be very expensive to institute. According to an article on time.com, "the average cost of an MRI scan in the U.S. is $2,611".
4.) The FAA may also not want to adopt a more liberal approach to medical. Adopting new, more relaxed policies could become problematic for airlines. There are several medications that are not allowed to be used by pilots if they wish to keep their first class medicals. Several of these medications used to treat mental illnesses can make an individual drowsy. Having a tired pilot fly an aircraft is unsafe and directly breaches the IMSAFE checklist. It would be unsafe to allow this to happen because those people might forget to take their medications and may have panic attacks, seizures, or like in the case of Germanwings, an extreme episode of depression.
2.) Another accident similar to the Germanwings accidnet, was done by a single man in a small airplane on February 18, 2010. The aircraft in question was a Piper Dakota. It was being flown by Joseph Stack III. He deliberately flew his aircraft into an IRS complex in Austin, Texas. He left a suicide note online that was saved by 27 people before the accident. Investigators determined his motive was his displeasure with the government and its various agencies, including the IRS. Stack went through a divorce earlier in his life and had to file for bankruptcy.
3.) The FAA states that "airline pilots to undergo a medical exam with an FAA-approved physician called an Aviation Medical Examiner (AME) every 6 or 12 months depending on the pilots age". At the general aviation level, all you are required to have at the minimum is a doctors note stating that you are fit to fly, before all you needed was a third class medical to fly. I think that the current requirements for pilots are satisfactory. If the FAA wished to institute new regulations that may be more effective, I would suggest more scientific based tests that use machines to analyze peoples behavior and brains. A scan of the brain, known as an MRI could determine weather a pilot was feeling depressed or not. However this would be very expensive to institute. According to an article on time.com, "the average cost of an MRI scan in the U.S. is $2,611".
4.) The FAA may also not want to adopt a more liberal approach to medical. Adopting new, more relaxed policies could become problematic for airlines. There are several medications that are not allowed to be used by pilots if they wish to keep their first class medicals. Several of these medications used to treat mental illnesses can make an individual drowsy. Having a tired pilot fly an aircraft is unsafe and directly breaches the IMSAFE checklist. It would be unsafe to allow this to happen because those people might forget to take their medications and may have panic attacks, seizures, or like in the case of Germanwings, an extreme episode of depression.
Sources
Alison, D.(2016, June 9). Fact Sheet-Pilot Mental Illness. Retrieved from: https://www.faa.gov/news/fact_sheets/news_story.cfm?newsId=20455
Glover, L. (2014, July 14). Why Does an MRI Cost So Darn Much?. Retrieved from: http://time.com/money/2995166/why-does-mri-cost-so-much/
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