KUALA LUMPUR, June 8 — Putrajaya is currently formulating a psychology test to assess and ensure all of the pilots operating in Malaysia are mentally stable, Deputy Transport Minister Datuk Ab Aziz Kaprawi told the Dewan Rakyat today.

He said the government decided that the test, which will come in the form of questionnaires, was necessary to ensure an incident like the homicidal Germanwings Flight 9525 crash would not occur in Malaysia.

“There are no provisions in existing laws to make such (emotional stability) tests.

“But after the Germanwings crash, the Department of Civil Aviation had asked psychologists and medical examiners to formulate standard questionnaires to be used for the assessment of pilots’ emotional stability,” Aziz said in reply to a question by Barisan Nasional’s Tanjung Malim MP Datuk Seri Ong Ka Chuan.

It was reported that the Germanwings pilot had intentionally crashed the plane into the French Alps while flying from Barcelona, Spain to Dusseldorf in Germany on May 24, killing all 150 people on board.

Ab Aziz said the tests will be conducted by designated aviation medical examiners but did not specify a timeframe for its expected rollout date.

In March, aviation investigators suggested similarities between the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 disappearance and the Germanwings Flight 9525 crash.

As in the early days when Malaysian police descended on the home of the MAS flight Capt Zaharie Ahmad Shah and his co-pilot Fariq Abdul Hamid, German investigators had also searched the house of Andreas Lubitz, 27, who had been at the controls of Flight 9525 when it crashed on Tuesday.

According to British daily The Telegraph, crash investigators are also trying to see if Lubitz was inspired by the events of MH370 and similar incidents.

Lubitz was the prime suspect in the crash after revelations from the plane’s cockpit voice recorder showed he was calmly at the helm of the plane while the other pilot fought desperately to regain entry into the locked cockpit.

Discovery of Lubitz’s action has prompted immediate response from the aviation industry, with many airlines now mandating that no pilot may be alone in the cockpit at any time during the flight.

Many in Malaysia also demanded Putrajaya conduct psychiatric tests on Malaysian pilots to avoid a repeat of the Germanwings tragedy here.

Suspicion remains on Zaharie as the “rogue pilot theory” remains among those considered the most likely to explain the disappearance of MH370.

His family members, however, have maintained that Zaharie is innocent.