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BEA, the French air accident authority stated its Germanwings investigation will focus on the analysis of “systemic weaknesses” such as psychological profiling and cockpit locking system that might have contributed to last week’s tragedy.
Also, on Tuesday March 31, attorneys representing some of the families who lost their loved ones in the disaster requested a reassessment of the regulations used in pilots’ psychiatric examination.
According to Londoner law firm Irwin Mitchell that represents some of the grieving families, this accident shows there is a need for “additional testing by a psychiatric specialist” which should be applied by all aviation authorities worldwide.
Jim Morris, former pilot at Britain’s Royal Air Force, stated that last week’s tragedy demonstrated “the large scale catastrophic consequences of what can go wrong when a pilot is not mentally fit”.
The general opinion is that the 27-year-old co-pilot Andreas Lubitz locked the door, thus denying the captain access to the cockpit. He then supposedly directed the airplane towards the mountains and intentionally crashed, killing all 150 people onboard.
German investigators gathered evidence that indicated Lubitz was “suffering from suicidal tendencies” even before getting his pilot’s license and that he was given days off from work but hid this information from his employers.
According to Lufthansa, the major company that controls Germanwings, Lubitz obtained normal results in his suitability tests and his annual medical examination.
France’s BEA is in charge of investigating civil crashes, focusing its examination on determining possible safety measures that could help prevent similar disasters in the future. The agency released the following statement on Tuesday:
“The Safety Investigation will be oriented towards the cockpit door locking system logic and cockpit access and exit procedures, as well as the criteria and procedures applied to detect specific psychological profiles.”
The investigation will most likely result in a series of safety changes regarding the two areas mentioned in the statement.
The BEA also stated it would examine the cockpit voice recorder along with any other available flight data. Up until now, the second black box has not been retrieved from the crash site.
Meanwhile, Lufthansa reserved $300 million for allegations resulted from the crash.
As a result of last week’s plane crash, European airlines have modified cockpit rules which now require two members of the crew to be present in the cockpit at all times.
Image Source: The Independent
