BRUSSELS, Aug. 16 (Xinhua) -- The European Union's aviation watchdog European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has published proposals for strengthening medical requirement for pilots after last year's crash of Germanwings flight in southern French Alps which was believed to be caused intentionally by a co-pilot.
EASA said in a statement the initial and recurrent medical examination of pilots should be strengthened, for example by drugs and alcohol screening, comprehensive mental health assessment, as well as improved follow-up in case of medical history of psychiatric conditions.
The agency has proposed increasing the quality of aero-medical examinations by improving the training, oversight and assessment of aero-medical examiners (AMEs).
EASA also aimed to prevent fraud attempts by "requiring aero-medical centers and AMEs to report all incomplete medical assessments to the competent authority."
The set of proposals will serve as "the basis for a legislative proposal" by the European Commission towards the end of 2016, according to the statement.
A German co-pilot was believed to have deliberately crashed a Germanwings plane in March last year into the southern French Alps after locking his captain out of the cockpit.
The co-pilot, identified as 27-year-old Andreas Lubitz, had undergone psychotherapy treatment because of suicide risk before he got his pilot certificate, and had been allowed to continue flying despite having visited doctors many times in the years preceding the crash.
