As it became clear that Andreas Lubitz deliberately crashed the aircraft he was co-piloting, the news media seized on evidence of his depression, prompting fears among other sufferers and carers of an increase in the stigma surrounding the condition Our team at the mental-health charity Mind, in the days following the tragedy of Flight 9525,  heard from pilots, firefighters and doctors, all of whom hold down “life and death” jobs and all of whom have experienced depression.They were deeply troubled about media reports that the co-pilot Andreas Lubitz was clinically depressed and that the stories made an oversimplified association between someone having depression and being likely to commit an act such as deliberately crashing an aircraft, as Lubitz is said to have done.