Investigators call for "Pilot medical confidentiality 'should be relaxed'"

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French investigators have called for medical confidentiality to be relaxed for pilots, in the wake of last year's Germanwings disaster. Co-pilot Andreas Lubitz was urged by a doctor to attend psychiatric hospital weeks before he crashed the plane on 24 March 2015, but his employer was never alerted, their final report says. All 150 people on board died as Flight 9525 hit a mountain in the French Alps. Investigators believe Lubitz brought down the plane deliberately. He had been suffering from severe depression, they said, but doctors had been unable to disclose this.

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Lubitz's medical visits in weeks leading up to crash

17 February: Doctor issues eight-day sick note not forwarded to Germanwings; second doctor refers Lubitz to psychotherapist and psychiatrist for outpatient treatment of psychosomatic disorder and anxiety disorder
22 February: Second doctor issues sick note for three days
9 March: Third doctor issues sick note, end date unknown, not forwarded to Germanwings
10 March: Second doctor refers Lubitz for psychiatric hospital treatment due to possible psychosis
12 March: Second doctor issues sick note for 19 days, not forwarded to Germanwings
18 March: Fourth doctor issues sick note for five days

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