‘Pilots should marry to avoid crashes’

The CEO of Turkish Airlines has suggested that his pilots get wed in order to ward off depression.

CEO Temel Kotil made the suggestion following the crash of Germanwings Flight 9525 into the French Alps last month, a crash perpetrated deliberately by the co-pilot who investigators say had hidden his depression from the airline.

All 150 passengers and crew members died in the disaster believed to be a direct result of co-pilot Andreas Lubitz’s suicidal tendencies.

While speaking with new pilots, Kotil pointed to the disaster in order to highlight the importance of the aviators’ “lifestyles,” according to the a Sunday report by the Turkish newspaper Hurriyet Daily, which quoted other Turkish media sources.

“That crash happened after the pilot, who caused the accident, broke up with his girlfriend. Hence, my friends, know that we are absolutely encouraging single pilots to marry,” Kotil said.

Among the victims of the March 24 disaster was 39-year-old Eyal Baum, an Israeli citizen who was living with his wife in Barcelona.

The CEO also lamented the company’s ratio of male to female pilots, expressing concern over the fact that only three of Turkish Airlines’s 86 new pilots were women.

“We currently only have 40 female pilots in our fleet. If half of our 4,000 pilots were female, there would be 2,000 women … At least 10 percent of our pilots should be female, meaning 400 in total. I invite all women who meet the criteria to become pilots,” Kotil said.