Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said the preliminary findings of French investigators into the crash of Germanwings Flight 9525 suggesting the co-pilot deliberately crashed the plan were “very troubling” and said any such incident should prompt a review of policy and procedures in the United States.
“The initial findings of the French investigators are so troubling and they do suggest that the pilot deliberately crashed the plane and waited until the other pilot was outside and then prevented him from accessing the cockpit,” she said. “It raises a question, in my mind, of whether one person inside the cockpit should be able to control access or whether we need a dual key situation. I don’t know. But it’s certainly troubling, very troubling.”
Collins, who sits on the Select Committee for Intelligence, said she was not familiar with the airlines’ process for screening pilots for mental and emotional disorders and planned to look into the matter and said the incident should trigger a review of policy.
“Whenever you have this kind of incident it should automatically trigger a review of whether there was anything that could have been done to prevent this horrible tragedy from happening and I hope such a review will be undertaken in this country as well,” Collins said.
The senator also noted that U.S. regulations require pilots to have far more hours of flying experience, which might help to identify pilots with mental health issues that could prove dangerous.
“I do think it’s significant that in this country, we require our pilots to have far more hours of flying experience than is the case in Germany and perhaps that would also allow for the identification of people who are not emotionally well.”
