On 24 March 2015, Germanwings 9525 flight crashed in the French Alps. The first reactions, quite naturally when such a tragedy happens, were horror and sadness. However, very soon, information leaked from the investigation and the French prosecutor quickly drew “conclusions” based only on the CVR readouts. Within 24hrs, what seemed at first to be an accident actually appeared to be a mass-murder, using a plane as a weapon. The pilot community and the pilot profession as a whole were deeply affected by it. As a professional association representing and defending pilots in Belgium, BeCA believes that this event must not lead to the implementation of hasty procedures, without proper safety assessment and only based on emotional reactions. The Bureau d’Enquêtes et d’Analyses (BEA) released the preliminary report. Below, BeCA expresses its thoughts and concerns relating to this event.

The investigation process

From the very beginning, BeCA warned about speculations and hasty conclusions and condemned the release of investigation information so soon after the crash. This is a clear example of the judicial investigation interfering with the safety investigation. As it already happened with past accident investigations, the public and the media wanted responses, leading the French and German authorities to release confidential information, such as the content of the CVR or the co-pilot’s medical record, which should not have been communicated.

Cockpit door procedures

The current cockpit door procedures were implemented following the 2001 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. As pilots, we know these new rules have been efficient and may have prevented unwanted people from entering the cockpit. With the Germanwings event, this procedure was immediately questioned. Within 48hrs, several airlines put into the place the “four-eye-rule”, making it compulsory to always have at least 2 persons in the cockpit. EASA even issued a recommendation along these lines. These new rules were implemented without any safety assessment, which goes against SMS principles, where new measures are put into place only after a thorough analysis of the risks vs. the likelihood has been carried out. We don’t know the new hazards this procedure may bring in and BeCA will closely follow up the future recommendations the BEA will issue in its final report.

Psychological assessment of pilots

As stated in the preliminary report, the current psychological evaluation of pilots should be assessed to determine if prevalent regulations can prevent the recurrence of such an accident. We must emphasise that this kind of accidents is still very rare (6 occurrences since 1980) and that stricter psychological screening of pilots will not necessarily guarantee improved safety. Although the GW event was a crime committed by a mentally ill pilot, it reminds us that pilots are human beings, who can be victims of depression and other psychological problems. With the increase in the number of atypical contracts (bogus self-employment, pay-2-fly, zero-hour contract, etc. – refer to our article in this edition) and the depreciation of working conditions, there is a risk that those problems start growing amongst pilots. The BeCA medical and loss of licence working group is taking care of following up on these issues and the new rules that may arise.

The Germanwings event hit badly our profession, our reputation and our professionalism. The flying public now wants more guarantees about our mental health and this may lead to licensing issues. BeCA, together with our mother association ECA, will work hard to make sure that this crash does not lead to the implementation of counterproductive procedures.