Two weeks before a Germanwings co-pilot intentionally crashed a jet into the French Alps in March 2015, a doctor recommended psychiatric hospitalization but didn’t alert authorities out of fear of breaching Germany’s strict privacy laws, according to a draft of the final report by air-safety investigators.
Investigators are expected to recommend that such privacy laws both in Germany and across Europe need to be reassessed by aviation authorities in cases where a “threat to public safety” should trump medical confidentiality.
The final report, scheduled to be released Sunday by France’s Bureau d’Enquetes et d’Analyses, is also expected to call for enhanced screening of commercial pilots with previously diagnosed psychiatric problems.
The draft also includes recommendations to encourage European pilots to voluntarily report mental-health issues, seek psychiatric help and allow them to continue flying while taking antidepressants. The measures are meant to address criticism that aviators often fear they will be punished if they admit to psychiatric problems, as well as foster peer-pilot support groups.
The 87-page draft was written late last year but is believed to closely match the final version, according to three people familiar with the details.
The twin-engine Airbus 320 was en route to Düsseldorf from Barcelona on March 24 when Andreas Lubitz, the 27-year-old co-pilot, deliberately steered the jet into a remote mountain range, killing all 150 people on board.
A BEA spokeswoman declined to address the investigation’s findings ahead of the final report’s publication. Investigators are scheduled to brief families of the victims Friday and Saturday.