VANCOUVER — The chief aviation investigator for the federal transport watchdog says he's absolutely confident in the safety records of Canadian airlines and the psychological testing administered to their pilots.
Mark Clitsome with the Transportation Safety Board says members of the public shouldn't have pilot-related safety concerns in the wake of the fatal Germanwings crash in France.
Clitsome has spent two decades probing high-profile air incidents and says what happened on Tuesday was very rare and that Canada has one of the best accident records in the world.
He added that while he has faith in current protocols, he's not aware of any cases where a major Canadian airline endured a similar incident.
Clitsome says there's been the occasional case where a pilot who owns their own airplane has gone flying and taken their life, but they never endangered anyone but themselves.
French prosecutors have concluded the co-pilot of the fatal flight deliberately flew the commercial airliner into the mountains.