Call for mental health screening for pilots to prevent 'suicide flights' after MH370 tragedy

Pilots are vetted for drug and alcohol issues before getting into a cockpit but not mental health problems

Enterprise News and Pictures Zaharie Ahmad Shah
Pilot: Researchers have called for pilots like Zaharie Ahmad Shah,of the missing MH370 flight, to be screened

Authors looking at the flight MH370 tragedy have called for airline pilots to be screened for mental health issues to prevent 'suicide flights'.

Carriers must begin "rigorous and regulated' testing to identify pilots and cabin crew who may pose a risk to passenger safety, they say.

The results of these checks should be made public so fliers can be certain that their pilot does not pose a danger.

Airlines are currently required by international law to conduct regular screening for drug and alcohol misuse.

But they are not obliged to test for mental health problems, including severe stress, and none of the world's largest carriers have volunteered to do so.

This 'gaping hole' in pre-flight safety could lead to other cases of pilot-driven murder, which some experts believe took place on board missing flight MH370.

SWNS Geoff Taylor and Ewan Wilson
Crash Researchers: Geoff Taylor (left) and Ewan Wilson have written a new book looking at possible causes of the disappearance

Ewan Wilson, a New Zealand-based air accident investigator who studied the tragedy, believes all 239 passengers died from asphyxiation after pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah depressurised the cabin hours before he deliberately crashed into the Indian Ocean.

He believes airlines have a duty of care to publish information about pilots' mental health and any incidents of drug or alcohol misuse.

Wilson, the founder of New Zealand's now defunct national carrier, Kiwi Airlines, spent more than four months researching the Malaysian disaster.

His book 'Goodnight Malaysian 370', which he co-wrote with New Zealand journalist Geoff Taylor, claims the tragedy could have been avoided with more stringent screening.

"It is shocking to think that international airlines are not required to routinely test their pilots for mental health irregularities, despite the terrible threat those pilots and their crew pose to significant numbers of innocent people," he said.

"Our research strongly suggests that Zaharie Ahmad Shah committed an act of mass murder before taking his own life.

"There has never been a more compelling or necessary time to screen pilots and other flight staff as there is now."

Still Missing: Theories abound about what happened to the missing flight MH370

Pilots are 'highly unlikely' to volunteer mental health issues of their own accord because it could spell the end of their careers, they argue.

Regular screenings, conducted by trained mental health professionals, would identify 'early warning signs' and lead to appropriate risk-management strategies being put into place - such as removing at at-risk pilot from the cockpit.

Only those pilots who can demonstrate a clean bill of mental health should be allowed to sit at the controls.

And in the interests of public scrutiny, airlines should publish moderated, sensitised versions of its screenings, perhaps in the form of a register.

"Otherwise, the only other possible remedy is for the travelling public, where possible, to make choices based upon what they know to be safe airlines, with the players prepared to open their scrutiny of flight crews' mental health to international standards," Taylor said.

The researchers believe there have been five incidents of pilot suicide on commercial flights in the last 32 years. Excluding those who died on Flight 370, these have been responsible for the deaths of 422 people.