TOW #20 - Germanwings 9295

It has been almost a year since the crash of the Germangwings Flight 9295. On March 24, 2015, pilot Andrew Lubitz crashed the plane into the Alps, killing all of the passengers. Significant research and investigation went into trying to discover why he would intentionally crash it, and they turned up on some interesting information. Andrew Lubitz had been suffering from severe depression and anxiety, along with some unstable consciousness. He had apparently visited 41 doctors concerning his condition, some of which advised him not to fly and diagnosed him with a psychosomatic disorder. However, due to German privacy laws, his doctors were not allowed to share this information with his employers. Currently, many are protesting a change in these laws in order to prevent another instance like this from occurring. In a profession such as an air pilot, you are responsible for many things, most importantly the safety of the passengers. In an area of work where something such as a mental disorder could impact your work significantly, I believe employers should be able to access that information. Certain health and mental conditions could impact their work, so employers should be aware of these conditions in their workers in order to adjust their job if needs be. For example, someone suddenly suffering from heart problems or increasing faintness should tell this to an employer, so that they know not to give that person a task that could harm them or others. Or, someone displaying suicidal tendencies should not be allowed to fly a plane, and should be focused on helping themselves recover. With someone like Andrew Lubitz where he showed many signs of being unfit to fly a plane, his employers definitely should have been notified. Many people knew about his conditions, but nobody spoke up about it. When someone is suffering like that from depression, anxiety, or any other health or mental related problem, they should urge the  person to tell their employer, especially when they have a job with such a responsibility as flying a plane. Especially since he visited so many doctors in a short time, and some deemed him unfit to fly, it should have encouraged people who knew this information to contact his employer, and they might have put him on a short leave for his health, and the accident would have never happened. Health and privacy laws are put in order to protect a person's private information, and while this is important, it should not get in the way of the safety of others.