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The accident involving Airbus 320 that crashed last Tuesday in the southern French Alps with 150 people on board has again placed the issues of civil aviation safety at the centre of public attention worldwide. The causes of the accident are still under investigation but prosecutor of Marseille Brice Robben has already raised charges against co-pilot Andreas Lubica of deliberately crashing the plane. GRReporter turned for comment to Bulgarian pilot Yanko Stoimenov, who has extensive experience as chief pilot of various foreign airlines and who is currently working in Switzerland. Yanko Stoimenov talks with Maria S. Topalova.

How is it possible for such a prestigious airline as Lufthansa to make that huge personnel omission, namely to allow a person with a serious mental illness to fly a plane of its fleet?

I would immediately oppose this, because it is not known whether he had suffered from a disease. So far, it is not clear whether the person was ill. Furthermore, the health condition of pilots is not assessed by the airline. It is assessed by authorized medical structures that are independent from the airline and it has no control over the health of pilots. The medical regulation in the pilot profession is separate from the airline and if we are to talk about some responsibility, it should be assumed personally by the pilots and by the medical system, which is external to the airlines. I.e. the airline cannot be held liable in this regard.

Being aware of the training that Andreas Lubica had completed and of the selection process at Lufthansa in terms of the qualities of a pilot and his technical knowledge and skills to fly a plane I am certain that he had all the qualities and skills to fly aircraft.

All media are now speaking of the mental disorder or illness of the co-pilot of the crashed plane. It is claimed that he had interrupted his training because of severe depression, had a medical certificate for such a disease and that he had even torn up his patient’s chart for the day of the crash.

Basically, in the case of a plane crash, the investigation should use facts. What bothers me is that a few days after the crash there already are conclusions that are so precipitous that they are in favour of nothing. Nor of civil aviation safety, nor of those who use its services. Fantasies, emotions are escalating about what happened, how it happened and why it happened. It could happen to anyone to interrupt his or her training for two or three months. Pilots are people like everyone else. Things happen to us in life too, such as the loss of a loved one, and we are not devoid of emotions. Therefore, rational thinking is required. We are not supermen, nor are we with ‘amputated’ emotions, nor do we not suffer from diseases. If one looks at the career of any pilot, one would see that he had to leave work temporarily; he suffered from a disease, etc. Being aware of the training that Andreas Lubica had completed and of the selection process at Lufthansa in terms of the qualities of a pilot and his technical knowledge and skills to fly a plane I am certain that he had all the qualities and skills to fly aircraft. Apparently, he had a German licence and certified aviation doctors in Germany had decided on his medical fitness to fly aircraft, and I suppose that their decision was correct. But as I say pilots are people too. And was this actually the cause of the crash?

If the cause of the crash is not the co-pilot committing suicide, what else could happen so that aircraft falls down from the height at which the plane in question was and in view of how it crashed in the end?

We do not know the reason why one of the pilots had left the cockpit nor do we know the reason why he had not been able to re-enter it.