EU panel says airline pilots should undergo psychological screening

EU panel says airline pilots should undergo psychological screening

PanARMENIAN.Net - In the wake of the Germanwings disaster, all airline pilots should undergo psychological screening and allow details of medical visits to be shared in a proposed European database, according to new recommendations delivered to EU officials.

A task force of experts led by Europe's aviation safety regulator also called for the introduction of random drugs and alcohol testing of pilots and better oversight of the doctors responsible for their regular medical checks.

European Union Transport Commissioner Violeta Bulc ordered the review after a young pilot barricaded himself inside the cockpit and crashed a Germanwings jetliner into the Alps in March, killing all 150 people on board.

Prosecutors have found evidence that the co-pilot, who had suffered severe depression and may have feared losing his job, had researched suicide methods and concealed an illness from his employer, sparking a debate on supervision and medical secrecy.

"We don't know everything that happened in this tragedy but we know a certain number of causes and we thought we may not want to wait until the final report of the accident investigation to launch actions," Patrick Ky, executive director of the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), told Reuters.

The idea is to "minimize the risk of a similar tragedy in the future", he said in an interview.

Alongside the extra testing, the panel is proposing better support schemes to allow pilots to come forward with concerns about their health, careers or other problems and discuss them confidentially without "an atmosphere of fear".

EASA called for a deeper examination of medical secrecy in all 28 EU nations. Some such as Britain already advise doctors to report any concerns where public safety is at stake.

"We know this is going to be the most difficult topic in our recommendations, but we really believe that if nothing is done ... then the risk is still high of having pilots who are medically unfit ... continuing to be pilots," Ky said.

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