Dublin: The International Air Transport Association (IATA) is warning against stigmatising mental illness as the industry seeks new measures to prevent a repeat of last year’s Germanwings disaster, in which a mentally unstable pilot intentionally crashed his jet.

Europe’s air safety regulator has since said would-be pilots would now be sent for psychological assessments that would check for signs of mental illness.

“The approach to reducing mental health risk needs to be multilayer. We believe there needs to be prescreening, a structural and recurring monitoring … but at the same time we must not stigmatise mental illness,” IATA’s senior vice-president for safety and flight operations Gilberto Lopez Meyer said at a media briefing in Dublin on Thursday.

There have been at least seven fatal incidents believed to have been intentionally caused by pilots since 1982, including the March 2015 Germanwings crash as well as the 1999 EgyptAir flight that crashed into the Atlantic, of which Egyptian authorities dispute the findings.

Germanwings flight 9525 crashed into the French Alps after co-pilot Andrea Lubitz locked his captain out of the cockpit. All 150 passengers and crew on board the Airbus A320 died. Investigators said Lubitz was mentally unwell and undergoing medical treatment for depression.

IATA, the world’s largest airline trade group, is cautioning against a heavy handed approach to evaluating mental health, fearing that it could force pilots and crew members to keep any conditions secret.

“It is recognised that it is impossible to totally predict human behaviour with existing tests. Any changes to the system should be carefully developed,” Lopez Meyer said.

“Pilots are not going to self-identify, or peers are afraid if they do identify there is going to be a punitive approach,” IATA spokesperson Perry Flint added.

Emirates and Etihad Airways both said following the Germanwings crash they would ensure there are two crew members in the cockpit at all times whilst the United Arab Emirates’ General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) said it was in consultations with its European counterpart over mental health assessments of pilots and crew members.

Safety is expected to be at the top of the agenda for airline executives in Dublin this week where IATA is hosting its annual industry meet. There have been at least two major incidents this year; last month’s EgyptAir crash into the Mediterranean and the March flydubai crash in Russia.

IATA was unable to say whether this year is set to have a higher accident rate than 2015 where there was a rate of 0.32, the equivalent of one accident in every 3.1 million flights, compared to the 2014 record low of 0.27. IATA committee that assesses aircraft accidents is to meet in the coming weeks, Flint said.