Following the lead of European regulators reacting to the
presumed suicidal co-pilot who brought down a Germanwings jet, the
Federal Aviation Administration has set up an advisory group to
consider possible changes in mental-health screening of U.S.
commercial pilots.
The industry-government committee, which also includes labor and
medical experts, can look at everything from potential regulatory
changes to voluntary efforts by unions and airlines, the agency
indicated Wednesday.
The move, however, comes after international groups representing
pilots and carriers have warned against overreacting to the
Germanwings tragedy, which killed all 149 people aboard the Airbus
jetliner that went down in the French Alps in March.
The European Aviation Safety Agency formed a similar study group
last month, and German regulators have launched a separate effort
to re-examine mental-health assessments of airline pilots. The
aviation arm of the United Nations also indicated it would
re-evaluate international mental-health standards.
It isn't clear whether any of those groups will end up urging
major changes to existing screening procedures. Strict privacy laws
in Germany allowed Andreas Lubitz, the Germanwings co-pilot, to
keep his mental problems hidden from management of the airline,
which is a unit of Deutsche Lufthansa AG.
Safety and medical experts have stressed the difficulty of
devising a new regulatory system—even one mandating
more-frequent and in-depth screenings—that can reliably
identify suicidal tendencies among pilots.
Given the current limitations of testing and medical science,
many psychiatrists and psychologist believe such a goal is
unreasonable. The public has to "recognize this is a complex
medical challenge," according to Olumuyiwa Bernard Aliu, president
of the top policy-making council of the U.N.'s International Civil
Aviation Organization.
The FAA has tasked its advisory committee with filing a report
by the end of the year regarding pilot fitness related to emotional
and mental-health issues. In a release, the agency said U.S. pilots
"undergo robust medical screening," but added that "recent
accidents in other parts of the world" prompted a review of the
issue.
In the U.S., airline pilots undergo routine medical screening by
FAA-approved examiners once or twice a year, depending on their
age. But such checks typically include only perfunctory efforts to
determine mental health, generally putting the onus on pilots to
self-report problems such as depression, drug or alcohol abuse and
changes in medication, according to pilots and physicians. The
system has remained largely unchanged over decades, except for FAA
decisions several years ago allowing aviators to keep flying while
on certain antidepressant drugs.
Whatever the FAA group eventually recommends, unions and
carriers already have strongly urged against swift or dramatic
changes.
Tony Tyler, chief executive of the International Air Transport
Association, the airline industry's primary global trade group,
last month warned that regulators in Europe appeared to be
embracing "immediate reaction rather than careful
consideration."
Around the same time, leaders of the International Federation of
Air Line Pilots' Associations, representing 100,000 commercial
aviators world-wide, also called for a more measured approach by
European authorities, asserting they should wait for a final crash
report before considering changes.
At the end of his tenure as president of the association, Don
Wykoff told the group's annual conference in Madrid: "We need to
advocate together for things that work, not knee-jerk, ineffective
quick fixes that only make some feel better in the short term."
Tim Canoll, president of the Air Line Pilots Association for
North America—which is participating in the FAA's new
group—said in an interview last month that after some
accidents, "there can be an urge to do something quickly, right
now," but often the results "are either ineffective or completely
useless."
As an alternative to stepped-up federal screening requirements,
over the years Mr. Canoll and other pilot leaders have urged
continued reliance on voluntary, union-run programs to pinpoint and
confidentially assist pilots with emotional or psychological
problems.
Such an approach, according to proponents, is more likely to
prompt pilots to acknowledge personal difficulties and seek help.
Many airline officials agree that mandating tougher screening
requirements may end up being counterproductive, making pilots more
prone to hiding mental-health problems from managers.
Write to Andy Pasztor at andy.pasztor@wsj.com
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