FAA’s small, positive step

Toledo Blade: The possibility that the pilot at the controls in an airline cockpit has mental-health problems that are not being addressed is pretty unnerving. So, it’s a step in the right direction for the Federal Aviation Administration to urge pilots struggling to maintain mental-health to get treatment.

Unfortunately, though, the FAA does not intend to initiate psychological testing for pilots, who already undergo annual medical examinations through age 40, when they then get physical exams twice a year.

Remember the German airline pilot who crashed his plane into the Alps in March 2015? He was believed to have had mental-health problems, and authorities believe he purposely crashed the plane, killing 150 people aboard.

The summer prior to that tragedy, that same pilot, Andreas Lubitz, passed his annual pilot recertification medical examination. However, only his physical health was evaluated, not his psychological health.

But the FAA says it does intend to improve training for aviation medical examiners to be better able to spot mental illness. That’s a positive step, as is the announced goal of an effort between airlines and pilot unions to expand mental-health assistance programs for pilots who have received a diagnosis.