Germanwings crash: New rules needed for pilot health issues

LE BOURGET, France (AP) — Aviation agencies around the world should draw up new rules requiring medical workers to warn authorities when a pilot's mental health could threaten public safety, French investigators recommended Sunday after a yearlong probe into the Germanwings plane crash.

[...] none of the doctors told authorities of any concerns about Lubitz's mental health, France's BEA air accident investigation agency said, including one who referred Lubitz to a psychiatric clinic just two weeks before the crash.

Because Lubitz didn't inform anyone of his doctors' warnings, the BEA said in a statement, "no action could have been taken by the authorities or his employer to prevent him from flying."

The U.S. National Library of Medicine notes on its entry for Citalopram that children and young adults who take the drug can become suicidal "especially at the beginning of your treatment and any time that your dose is increased or decreased."

[...] relatives of those killed have pointed to a string of people they say could have raised the alarm and stopped Lubitz, going back to the days when he began training as a pilot in 2008.

Germany's confidentiality laws prevent sensitive personal information from being widely shared, though doctors are allowed to suspend patient privacy if they believe there is a concrete danger to the person's safety or that of others.

The new BEA safety recommendations also included peer support groups for aviation workers and other measures to reduce the stigma and fear of losing a job that many pilots face for mental health issues.

Since the crash, the airline has replaced its Germanwings brand with the name Eurowings.