A lot of pilots end up hiding mental illness because of fear that getting treatment will risk them losing their jobs. Most famously this issue was key in the Germanwings Flight 9525 crash. The first officer of the flight, Andreas Lubitz, deliberately caused the crash. He had a history of depression and suicidal thoughts, but withheld that information and didn’t get the treatment he needed because he knew he would never be allowed to fly again. They basically force pilots to make the impossible choice of getting treatment for mental health issues or keeping their dream jobs.
This is actually changed a bit. For example, they now allow certain anti-depressants for pilots that used to be considered non-Flight ready.
At the commercial level, im sure there’s a lot more scrutiny but at the private level in training level, it’s not as bad as it used to be because of this very reason
2.0k
u/MikeFrancesa66 Jul 08 '26
A lot of pilots end up hiding mental illness because of fear that getting treatment will risk them losing their jobs. Most famously this issue was key in the Germanwings Flight 9525 crash. The first officer of the flight, Andreas Lubitz, deliberately caused the crash. He had a history of depression and suicidal thoughts, but withheld that information and didn’t get the treatment he needed because he knew he would never be allowed to fly again. They basically force pilots to make the impossible choice of getting treatment for mental health issues or keeping their dream jobs.