Germanwings crash: Investigators call for new mental health checks for pilots

The BEA air investigation agency said new guidelines were needed to ensure pilots are properly screened for serious mental health conditions. Doctors should warn authorities if a pilot's psychological state poses a threat to public safety, the report said. But it stopped short of calling for regular psychiatric tests for all pilots.

The French report revealed how co-pilot Andreas Lubitz was advised to seek treatment at a psychiatric clinic just two weeks before the crash. Investigators said doctors had described his symptoms as compatible with a psychotic episode. Despite a history of depression and the fact he was on two antidepressants at the time of the crash, none of his doctors reported their concerns to authorities.

Arnaud Desjardins, the head of the French investigators, said on Sunday that the pilot certification process failed to identify the risks posed by Lubitz' severe depression. Germany's confidentiality laws were especially strict and clearer guidelines were needed to establish when public safety outweighed patient privacy, the report said. Germanwings maintains it knew nothing of Lubitz' illness.

On March 24, 2015, Germanwings Flight 9525 crashed in the French Alps during a flight from Barcelona to Düsseldorf. It was carrying 144 passengers and six crew, mostly Germans and Spaniards. Within hours, French investigators said they believed the co-pilot had deliberately caused the tragedy by locking the pilot out of the cockpit and setting the autopilot to a height of just 100 meters (328 ft).

At 10:31 CET, Flight 9525 left its cruising altitude of 12,000 meters (38,000 feet) and began to descend rapidly. French air traffic controllers attempted to make contact but there was no response from the flight deck. Later, audio from the black box flight recorder revealed how the pilot attempted to get back into the cockpit, while Lubitz' breathing remained steady throughout the descent.

The French report did not request a change to cockpit security, despite Lubitz being able to lock the plane's pilot out of the flight deck. The locking system was introduced to keep hijackers from gaining access to the cockpit after 9/11. Following the Germanwings crash, several airlines have made it compulsory to have two people in the cockpit at all times during the flight.

Lawyers for the victims' families say Lubitz' doctors, a US flight training school and the airline were responsible for failing to detect, and act on, his psychological problems. Lubitz had suffered a severe depressive episode during his pilot's training in 2009. The families were informed of the details of the report on Saturday in Barcelona and Bonn, a day before its release.

The remains of 16 German teenagers and two teachers who had been in Barcelona on a school exchange and were killed in the crash traveled in a convoy of white hearses when they arrived back in Germany two months after the crash. In their home town Haltern, 18 trees - one for each victim - have been planted outside their school.

Since the tragedy, Germanwings has rebranded and become Eurowings. On Sunday, its parent company Lufthansa welcomed the French recommendations. In a brief statement, the German carrier said that "ensuring the highest possible flight safety was and remains our utmost priority." The company said it would "support the possible implementation of concrete measures" based on the BEA report.

A monument in memory of the victims stands in the village of Le Vernet in southeastern France. Located close to the mountainous crash site, the tiny hamlet has become a permanent place of memorial for many of the relatives. Over the past year, several trips have been arranged to help the families of those killed get some sort of closure after the tragedy.