Newly-trained pilots at a training center in Istanbul were told by Turkish Airlines CEO Temel Kotil last week that they were “absolutely” being encouraged to marry.
Kotil made the statement in context of an address on the subject of last month’s suicide plane crash in the French Alps by the co-pilot of Germanwings Flight 4U 9525.
“The lifestyles of our pilot friends, be they men or women, are extremely important,” Kotil told the new pilots. “Therefore, dear friends, we are absolutely encouraging those of you who are single, to marry.”
Germanwings co-pilot Andreas Lubitz suffered from depression, for which he previously had been treated. He reportedly told his girlfriend that he was planning a gesture that all would remember, according to Fox News.
Prosecutors are still investigating his motives for locking the pilot out of the cockpit before deliberately flying the commercial airliner into a mountainside in southern France.