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FAA urges pilots to seek mental health screening
The Federal Aviation administration is beefing up medical screening for commercial pilots but will not impose mandatory psychological testing.
FAA administrator Michael Huerta said psychological tests are not effective as they may only highlight temporary issues and do not provide accurate pointers to a pilot’s long term mental health condition.
Instead, Huerta announced other measures to encourage voluntary self-assessment by pilots with potential mental health problems and ‘peer-to-peer’ programs for pilots at risk.
The agency will also offer enhanced training for airline industry medical examiners to make it easier to spot mental health issues in pilots.
"We need to do more to remove the stigma surrounding mental illness in the aviation industry so pilots are more likely to self-report, get treated and return to work," Huerta said.
Prospective airline pilots are required to take a psychological test before being hired but these are generally personality tests and don’t flag any potential mental health problems, said Michael Berry, the FAA’s deputy flight surgeon.
The move comes following the crash of Germanwings Flight 9525 which was brought down deliberately by co-pilot Andreas Lubitz a year ago.
Lubitz had hidden from the airline his battle with severe depression, which included suicidal tendencies.
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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