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Lufthansa considers spot medical checks on pilots

Xinhua, May 22, 2015 Adjust font size:

German airline Lufthansa said Friday that the company was considering spot medical checks for its pilots, after one of them apparently deliberately crashed a plane in France in March, killing 150 on board.

"In contrast to other air crashes, no clear consequences can yet be drawn with regard to onboard safety from the Germanwings crash," Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr told German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on Friday.

"But of course we are continually working on minimizing the risks of flying still further," he added.

Andreas Lubitz, co-pilot of a passenger plane of Lufthansa's fully-owned subsidiary Germanwings, is believed to have deliberately crashed the aircraft into the French Alps on March 24. He is thought to have a history of depression.

Lufthansa is weighing "unannounced health checks" on its pilots, which could be a possible way to help reduce uncertainty over the pilots' mental health, Spohr added.

In addition, the airline would examine very closely "under which conditions and in what exceptional circumstances doctors might have to be exempted from medical confidentiality obligations," he stated. Endite