Pilots and Depression

On Tuesday March 24, 2015, Germanwings Flight 9525 departed from Barcelona, Spain in route to Dusseldorf, Germany. Aboard the plane was Captain Patrick Sondenheimer, Co-pilot Andreas Lubitz, 4 other crew members and 144 passengers. The plane fatally crashed into the French Alps killing all 150 people on board. This crash however was not due to any mechanical malfunction but the actions of co-pilot Lubitz. Sondenheimer had left the cockpit for only a brief moment when Lubitz locked the cockpit door and began the descent into the mountain, setting the autopilot to descend to 100ft. It was noted the aircraft went from 38,000ft to 5,000ft in just 8 minutes. Sondenheimer tried numerous times to regain entry being ignored by Lubitz, and even tried to bust the door down with an axe. In the aftermath, it was found that Lubitz had been seeking help for depression, but keeping it from his employer. They even found a note from his psychiatrist stating that he was unfit to fly the day of the accident, though he never turned anything in. (Engel 2015)

A similar case to that is Mozambican Airlines flight TM470. On November 29, 2013, the aircraft left the capital Maputo for Angola but crashed, killing all 33 passengers. There was no mechanical malfunction found and the Civil Aviation Institute reported that the pilot made a "deliberate series of maneuvers" causing the accident. While it is said that the motives were unclear, Joao Abreu, head of the Civil Aviation Institute, stated that the pilot, Hermino dos Santos Fernandes, had a "clear intention" to crash the aircraft. Like the Germanwings crash, Dos Santos Fernandes locked himself in and his co-pilot out of the cockpit. "During these actions you can hear low and high-intensity alarm signals and repeated beating against the door with demands to come into the cockpit" said Abreu. (Pilot deliberately crashed 2013) He manually changed the altitude from 38,000ft to about 550ft while also changing the aircraft speed. Again, while it is unclear of his motives, it was rumored he was having marital problems due to losing a son.

Pilots must pass a physical and mental evaluation every 6 months over 40 and once a year under to be certified to fly passengers. Unfortunately, most of the emphasis is put on the physical rather than mental. They are asked to answer simple yes or no questions and at various locations. If you take the examinations not in house, previous data is not available. Sadly, most pilots will not say anything about having any issues such as depression because it can and most likely will take them out of the sky. (Park, Oaklander 2015) I feel that something needs to be done so that pilots feel more safe to express the need for help without having to worry about losing everything they have worked for. Maybe if there was an allotted time period for that person to get actual help and take whichever medicines they need to knowing that their job will be there for them when they get better. Otherwise I feel that they are admitting to having a problem only for everything to be taken away which can lead to even worse depression.


Engel, B. (2015, March 30). Here's everything we know about the crash of Germanwings flight 9525. Retrieved September 20, 2015

Park, A., & Oaklander, M. (2015, March 26). How Pilots are Screened for Depression and Suicide. Retrieved September 20, 2015.

Pilot 'deliberately crashed' Mozambique plane - BBC News. (2013, December 22). Retrieved September 20, 2015.