Revisiting Pilot's and Depression

Pilot's are human just as anyone else. Yet, they are held to a higher standard then the rest of the population.  A pilot holds the public's trust in his hands with every flight, so it is important for him to be physically and mentally fit.  Although, he may get sick and come down with a cold or the flu, but what about if a pilot is plagued with depression.  Depression is just as much an illness as any other.

Currently, the industry does not have appropriate procedures in place to protect a pilot if he suffers from depression. He may be worried that if his issues are brought to the surface he will not only lose his job, but also his career. 

Let's say that the airline industry has a procedure in place to treat a pilot with depression. Once the pilot is diagnosed and finds himself "healthy" again how can the FAA be sure that the pilot is fit to fly? These are questions procedures that are sure to be brought up with the future of the aviation industry.  

The biggest case of a pilot with depression lately is the Germanwings 9525 crash with pilot Andreas Lubitz.  Lubitz crashed an Airbus A320 into the French Alps killing 150 people. This was a clear and deliberate murder suicide. Andreas had a history of depression and was originally denied a medical because of that. After receiving treatment he was deemed fit to fly, but that was not true. (Bruer and Marsh, 2015) Lubitz was said to have "reactive depression". This is a psychological state occassioned directly by an intensely sad situation, relived by removal of, alteration of, or response to the external situation. (Farlex n.d.) He must have had a traumatic event in his life that lead him down this terrible path.  So one may ask how Lubitz received his medical after admitting he had depression. He went through treatment and talked to a professional who decided that he would be a safe pilot.  After he was cleared to fly Lubitz basically self-monitoring his depression. There were no follow-ups to judge the progression of his health.  I believe this is where the system failed. If a person is diagnosed with depression then they should have follow up appointments with a professional for the rest of there life.  If this was added to the system then I am sure issues of mass suicide such as this would not arise. 

 The aviation industry is taking strides in the right direction following this accident.  350 pilots in the last five years have been grounded due to mental illness.  The number of diagnosed mental illness cases has increased by 66% over these five years.   This increase is due to the new regulations that allow aircrew to regain there medical certificate, once they have made a full recovery of a depressive illness. (Mathew, 2015) This is an incredible improvement for not only the aviation industry, but also against the illness that is depression.   

Depression was no doubt a part of the cause in the Germanwings crash, but a murder-suicide is cause from a greater mental illness than just depression.  Even before investigators inferred the cause of flight may be from mental status the media was looking at the depression from Lubitz past. This is troubling because it counteracts the idea that people can't change. It's a very cynical approach.  People can change and overcome depression that they may have at a point in time.  (Feldman, 2015) With more knowledge of depression and how to treat it, our industry will become safer and healthier. 

References:

Bruer, W. & Marsh, R. (2015, April 30) FAA questioning mental health of germanwings pilot. CNN Politics. Retrieved from http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/29/politics/germanwings-pilot-faa-mental-health/

reactive depression. (n.d.) Farlex Partner Medical Dictionary (2012). Retrieved from http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/reactive+depression

Mathew, S. (2015, July 27) 350 british pilots grounded in the last five years because of mental illness, figures released after germanwings crash show. Mail Online. Retrieved from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3176861/Review-British-pilots-mental-health-wake-Germanwings-disaster-finds-350-grounded-past-five-years-276-returned-skies.html

Feldman, D. (2015, June 8) Is it right to blame depression for the crash of germanwings flight 9525. Huffpost Healthy Living. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-feldman/is-it-right-to-blame-depression-for-the-crash-of-germanwings-flight-9525_b_7011660.html

ATC Privatization

Recently, air traffic control privatization has been a growing controversial topic in the aviation industry.  On one hand a majority of the major airlines support privatization. While on the other, the general aviation industry is opposing the concept.  Additionally, Delta Airlines is opposing, but for different reasons than the general aviation industry.  

The GA industry has spoken out against ATC privatization primarily for two points.  These points include increased user fees and unequal treatment towards GA.   According to Wood, (2015) EAA officials stated that consequences of user-fees would penalize the practice of using ATC services, such as filing IFR in marginal conditions or simply receiving VFR advisories.  GA may not be able to use ATC to as full of an extent as they do today.  Also, GA is worried that the airlines will get priority treatment over them because they pay more to the system.

Most of the major airlines including American, Alaska, Jet Blue, and Southwest have recently stated that they urge air traffic control privatization. (Jansen, 2015) They believe that privatization would not only stabilize funding, but that a private corporation would work faster than the FAA to modernize equipment and adopt more efficient flight paths.  These airlines see would see major savings if new technology was implemented in a timely manner.

Privatization is in other countries including Canada, New Zealand, Germany, and the United Kingdom.  The best running privatized system is most likely Canada. Nav Canada's system handles 50 percent more traffic volume then it did before 1996 and it has 25 percent less employees.  Also, Nav Canada has developed and sold ATC technologies around the world. (Bachman, 2015)

In order to introduce to privatization it may be a quite complicated process.  Currently, House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Rep. Bill Shuster is intending to introduce legislation to congress. (Wood, 2015) If passed it would go to the next step of the legal process.  Even once through, finding a suitable private corporation that's trained appropriately may be difficult. The US airspace is more complicated and busier than that of others, such as Canada.  There is no doubt a long road ahead for privatization.

Personally, I believe that the current FAA implemented ATC system is working quite well.  Reform may be needed so that new technology, such as NextGen comes to fruition more quickly, but the FAA provides a great service to all areas of the aviation industry equally.  The costs and problems that may arise from privatization are not worth the end result.  Also, all the effort the FAA has put in to NextGen could be wasted.  Finally, Delta's planes arrived with in 15 minutes of there scheduled arrival 92.1% of the time over this Thanksgiving season. (Jansen, 2015) This shows the current efficiency of the FAA.  Many of these reasons are why Delta Airlines does not support ATC privatization and neither do I.  

References:

Wood, J. (2015, July 8). Call to action issued over ATC privatization. General Aviation News. Retrieved from http://generalaviationnews.com/2015/07/08/call-to-action-issued-over-atc-privatization/

Jansen, B. (2015, December 2). Airline executives urge privatization of air-traffic control. USA Today. Retrieved from http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2015/12/01/airline-executives-urge-privatization-air-traffic-control/76604766/

Bachman, J. (2015, September 11). Should the U.S. privatize air-traffic control? Bloomberg Business. Retrieved from http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-09-11/should-the-u-s-privatize-air-traffic-control-