On Sunday, March 29, 2015 at 11:57:46 AM UTC-7, Roy Clark, "B6" wrote:
36 years of involvement in the psychiatric assessment of professionals whose work requires safety to the public (healthcare, legal, law enforcement, ATP, commercial, and private-rated pilots, air flight crew members, and those who work with WMD [weapons of mass destruction]) has taught me there is no perfect reaction to these events. The Colgan flight 3407 event occurred about 6 months after the FAA have noted concern regarding an apparent lack of a healthy safety culture sufficient to threaten to revoke Colgan's operating certificate. Despite their flight experience, the actions of both pilots involved sank to the level of their inadequate training. The resulting rules did NOT change the general requirement of 1,500 hours flight time for an ATP rating. The NTSB also expressed concerns about pilot fatigue and failure to maintain a sterile cockpit focus in a clearly critical flight environment. To date, I am not aware of medical data to indicate that Andreas Lubitz would NOT have been qualified, even in the US under FAR 67.107, at the time of hire. None of any "shink" involved could have recommended he not be hired.
(Remember, the slang root of "shrink" is "head shrinker" referring to attempts to reduce the head (ego) of those whose self-assessment is excessive and well-beyond reality). Those "shrinks" are already involved in the on-going evaluation of current airline pilots with identified mental health or substance abuse issues via FAR 67.107. Personally, I would prefer my pilot union officer to be focused on pushing back on any over-reaching and heavy-handed management effort to dilute air crew training requirements or meeting lawfully-enacted regulations and supporting both self- and peer-reporting of concerns about possible unstable mental health functioning.

The requirement for the 1500 hour ATP is the same (you misunderstood my post) what HAS CHANGED is the requirement to HOLD AN ATP TO FLY FOR A REGIONAL OR MAJOR AIRLINE. This new requirement, which was a knee-jerk reaction to the COGAN AIR crash has capped off the pipeline for cheap labor. No longer can the regionals expect a constant flow of 250 hour CFI's to fill their cockpits and thus putting downward pressure on wages for these Regional FO's.
You mentioned self or peer reporting. Might I suggest that since this already exists in the airline world, that it starts with the Mental Health Professionals. It would go a long way in weeding out, oh let's call them "free spirits" who seem to flock to the profession. Pilots Unions have a "Professional Standards" Committee. It is very effective with dealing with unprofessional behavior. Screening Airline Pilots in an ongoing basis will not solve what happened to Germanwings. It's going to take a high-tech solution. Satellite based system to override the door locking systems. The system will need to require a system similar to how we operate our missile defense systems - two people with separate codes etc.