Suspected suicide of a ­Qantas pilot: Screening ‘relies on honesty’

The suspected suicide of a Qantas pilot who flew a private plane into the ocean at 200km/h has sparked debate.

The circumstances ­surrounding first officer Paul Whyte’s actions on Monday are unknown.

The suspected suicide of a ­Qantas pilot who flew a private plane into the ocean at 200km/h has sparked debate about airline screening processes, with a leading depression expert saying the system is not foolproof.

While the circumstances ­surrounding first officer Paul Whyte’s actions on Monday are unknown, air traffic control monitored the single-engine aircraft he had hired for the day from the Northern Rivers Aero Club in Lismore before it crashed into the ocean about 11km northeast of Byron Bay. Police have been unable to recover the ­Lismore man’s body or the wreckage, but said there were no suspicious ­circumstances.

The incident comes a year after 27-year-old Germanwings co-pilot And­reas Lubitz locked his captain out of the cockpit of an Airbus A320 during a flight from Barcelona to Dusseldorf and flew into the French Alps, killing all 150 ­people. In a report released this month, investigators said the remains of Lubitz — who had a history of psychological issues — contained traces of antidepressants.

Pilot suicide is also a theory in the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 two years ago.

The head of the psychiatry school at the University of NSW, Philip Mitchell, a professorial fellow at the Black Dog Institute, said there was a difference ­between pilots who took down their plane and those who took hundreds with them.

“In general, when people are depressed … they only take their own life. When there’s the taking of a whole plane with passengers ­involved, it just doesn’t fit the usual pattern,” Professor Mitchell said.

In Australia, pilots of passenger planes must hold a Civil Aviation Safety Authority medical certificate that has to be renewed annually and includes psychological testing.

CASA requires pilots to dec­lare any significant changes in their mental health. Anyone with a history of psychosis, alcoholism, drug dependence, personality disorder or mental abnormality is forbidden to fly.

Professor Mitchell, who has done a number of pilot reviews for CASA, said its current honesty system, “clearly implies there needs to be a frankness on behalf of the pilot”.

“My experience is most pilots are pretty frank about those things,” he said.

“The issue is how often people are reviewed and the adequacy of that — you can never have a completely foolproof system.”