So ATOs are, as we speak, now developing another item to report on monthly for the under pressure instructors to battle through. And of course appropriate training will be given to identify the signs
It should be - EASA and the FAA view initial training as distinct and separate from the rest of an airline pilot's career - for an integrated CPL or MPL candidate it should not be. As an instructor, you spend more time with a prospective pilot than any AME, Psychologist or Psychiatrist and frankly, if you need training to identify unusual personality traits or judgement calls that 'may' be indicators of mental health problems, then you're probably coaching not teaching.
EASA are currently consulting with EU States on the issuance of new Operational Directives concerning a number of the 4U Taskforce recommendations including Psychological and psychiatric evaluation of applicants for Class 1 medical certificates and the Psychological evaluation of flight crew by CAT operators for implementation in the very near future, but when are they going to recognise the part the ATO plays - pre-training and pre-employment evaluation are all well and good but if a proper reporting, review process and mechanism exists where a student flagged as having 'non-technical' issues can be chopped from training instead of simply moved to another instructor as happens too frequently for commercial reasons, and if instructors, particularly at those ATO's operating outside of EU Member States were properly supervised and came under greater oversight through either EASA or the appropriate NAA in addition to their own national requirements (e.g. FAA) from a standardisation perspective (i.e. during annual approval inspections, instructors were selected randomly for sampling by the NAA rather than being provided by the school management based on known ability), I for one would be more satisfied that appropriate checks and measures were in place to help identify another potential Andreas Lubitz.