Lufthansa says it was not obligated to report pilot's medical records

Lufthansa said Monday it was not required to inform German aviation authorities about Andreas Lubitz's former depression, because he qualified as a pilot before stricter reporting rules went into effect in 2013.

Lubitz, a co-pilot at Lufthansa's budget division Germanwings, is believed to have deliberately crashed the plane into the French Alps that killed 150 people.

The question of what Lufthansa knew about any psychiatric problems may be a factor in its liability in the crash. Germany's Allianz estimates that insurers will end up paying $300 million in claims and costs related to the crash.

Lubitz broke off pilot training for several months in 2009. When he resumed his training, he told the Lufthansa pilot instructors by email he had overcome a period of severe depression. He was first certified to fly commercial planes in 2012.

Under European regulations, pilots with psychiatric conditions should be referred to the licensing authority by medical examiners, who may then decide to restrict the pilot’s license.

The Luftfahrtbundesamt (LBA), the relevant German authority, said on Sunday it had "no information at all" before the crash about Lubitz's depression.

Lufthansa said that a provision in the new regulation, introduced in Germany in April 2013, safeguarded certain pre-existing fit-to-fly certificates and medical certificates issued by specialized aviation doctors.

Aviation medical centers or doctors could therefore issue extensions to such medical certificates even after the new rules came into effect, the airline said.

"A general and separate duty to refer to the LBA did not therefore arise as a result of the change in the legal position," Lufthansa said.

Dirk Fischer, a senior member of parliament in Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives, told the Rheinische Post newspaper last week that the confidentiality rules should be relaxed if the lives of others could be put in jeopardy.

But medical and aviation associations rejected those calls, arguing the laws were a "precious commodity" that should not be tampered with.

"Such measures won't prevent accidents from happening in the future. Instead it will only lead to affected patients not seeking out treatment, so as to prevent information being passed on to their employer," the German Federation of Internists said last week.

Doctors already have authority to break the confidentiality vows if they feel their patient puts others at risk, according to Frank Ulrich Montgomery, head of the Federal Chamber of Physicians in Germany.

Privacy is fiercely guarded in Germany, a reaction to the mass surveillance carried out by the Gestapo in the Nazi era and the Stasi in post-war communist East Germany.

Under German law, employers cannot access employees' medical records and sick notes excusing a person from work do not specify their medical condition.

Pilots in Germany are required to inform examiners at their annual medical checks of any relevant health issues.

In Britain, examiners at pilots' regular medical checks can request records from other doctors if they need them.

In the United States, laws on whether mental health providers can report that a patient poses an immediate threat of harm to self or others vary by state.

In states that require health professionals to disclose information about patients that pose a risk to others, the medical professional must inform law enforcement authorities.

Reuters