Originally Posted by
METO Guido
No, you don't. Nor 'should' you have a need to.
Airmen, less perfect ones like me that is, don't necessarily always DO what's required. Specifically, when the cure is worse than non-compliance. Crewmembers at every major airline take their own lives every year. More than gets attention. Anyone even track what part of these cases untreated depression is clinical?
Indeed, that is true. I myself have no idea what the suicide rate is for pilots, it's a job that can be high stress but I don't see flying as a profession on any list known for high suicide rates... like for doctors and some other white collar jobs. After the Germanwings thing the heat is definitely up on mental health, including depression. What the FAA and other aviation authorities don't get (yet) is people like Andreas Lubitz had more than a serious case of depression going on. Depressed people don't do mass murder along with it, and though we may never know, Lubitz probably had a case of PSYCHOTIC depression and other co-morbid features. Psychotic means you hallucinate and/or have delusions. Lucky for me, mine never got nearly that bad, but it was bad enough it took some flying years away and definitely some skin off my back.