Pilots & Mental Illness

            Some could argue to fly safely means to do so both sanely and efficiently. Some may also call the current FAA requirements and psychological screenings sufficient, in looking for said sanity and efficiency. My question to you is this: will there ever truly be a catch-all means to identifying mental incompetence in regards to pilots or flightcrew? If I have a bad day, week, or year, am I at risk for driving my car into a church on a Sunday morning? Every single person on this planet has experienced mental or physical discomfort in some way, but where do we draw the line from justified reactions to mass murder? A person diagnosed (or undiagnosed) with mental illness can find a way to justify every action he or she carries out. The magnitude to which mental illnesses manifest in our brains is so vastly explored, identified, and simultaneously unknown… and yet screening for it can be rendered practically useless. Requiring an employer to obtain a physical or mental screening in any career field can be extremely beneficial in identifying various concerns, but it doesn’t solve everything. Properly and honestly relinquishing the number of alcoholic beverages you drink on an annual basis can be beneficial too… but that doesn’t mean everyone actually admits to the amount they drink. My point is simple, and it involves one of life’s most certain inevitabilities: people lie. The most unstable and cognizantly altered individual has the ability to put on a show when necessary.

            Not all accidents are attributed to a deep-rooted psychological disorder. Sometimes a major life event that happens can alter a mental state following a series of triggers. If I have an FAA health screening on Tuesday, for example, but my parents die, my husband cheats on me, and I get a flat tire on the way to work on Wednesday, am I still technically “fit to fly” just because a piece of paper tells me I am? This is an impossible process, and although there are often indicators and preventative measures in terms of health evaluations to identify mental illness, the world of life and death will never be the desired black and white.

            Germanwings Flight 4U9525 is an extremely unfortunate example of a pilot suffering from a mental illness. On March 24^th, 2015, the first officer operating Germanwings Flight 4U9525, Andreas Lubitz, deliberately crashed his aircraft into the French Alps, killing all 150 people on board. Two months after dropping out of a Lufthansa Flight Training Pilot School, Lubitz was diagnosed and treated with antidepressants after experiencing thoughts of suicide. After nine months of therapy, Lubitz was deemed fit to fly, but continued to receive powerful drugs prescribed by his doctor. All the while, his fits of depression and suicidal ideations were justified as being a result of moving away from his family to pursue his dream of flying, in addition to the ringing in his ears that he had been experiencing (tinnitus). Lubitz continued to pursue his goal of flying, but failed to relinquish his past experience with depression and suicide on his application for his student-pilot form. Although lying on the form is illegal, Lubitz essentially received a slap on the wrist for not disclosing his previous condition, and was given the opportunity to retake the medical exam, of which he passed. 

            Lubitz eventually relapsed and started to experience symptoms that were described by doctors as being fearful, and hypochondriacal in nature. To make matters worse, his family doctor and psychiatrist were well aware of his issues, but failed to contact his aviation medical examiner, even though they were authorized to do so. Flash forward to Flight 9525, flying from Barcelona El Prat Airport, Spain to Dusseldorf in Germany, after which Lubitz made the predetermination to take his own life via the Germanwings Airbus A320 he was flying that day. When the captain of the aircraft, Patrick Sondenheimer, left the cockpit to utilize the restroom, Lubitz locked Sondenheimer out to carry out his plan. Lubitz continued to descend at a rapid rate, ignoring all ATC commands and radio calls. Sondenheimer attempted to break into the cockpit utilizing a crowbar after receiving zero response from Lubitz. At 1041 hours at 403 miles per hour, the right wing of Flight 4U9525 made impact with the side of the mountain, following the deliberate crash and final resting point on the French Alps, subsequently killing all 144 passengers and six crew members on board (Hammer, 2016).

            While death via suicidal airplane pilot is far less likely to occur than death involving an automobile, the harsh reality still exists. In 1982, a depressed Japan Airlines pilot traveling into Haneda Airport was institutionalized after his failed attempt at bringing down his DC-8, which resulted in 24 passenger casualties in the process. In 1998, an Air Botswana pilot in Gaborone who had just been diagnosed (and grounded) with the AIDS virus, crashed his aircraft into the other Air Botswana fleet (Bruggen, 2015).

            Airline captains are required to have a first class medical, whereas first officers have the option of first or second class medical certificates (although most US airlines require first class certifications regardless). Pilots are required to go through a medical screening that is renewed every six months if the pilot is forty years or older, and annually if the pilot is below the age of forty. In order to receive the medical certificate, a pilot is required to complete an application and physical examination with an FAA approved Aviation Medical Examiner (AME). Throughout the duration of the appointment, the AME is required to assess the pilots mental health to determine if they are fit and mentally competent to fly (FAA, 2016). A pilot is required to disclose his or her physical or mental conditions, but as I have so candidly explained: what if they don’t? Many flyers operate with the fear of losing that ability to fly. If we operated under the notion of helping pilots, as opposed to threatening to ground them if they disclose suicidal thoughts or depression, maybe we would have more people coming forward for help. The FAA could try making professional help more readily available and accepted across the ranks. If I admit to experiencing depression from a death in the family, will I be grounded without pay? There needs to be a better incentive on getting help without fear of repercussions.

            In the same respect, if the FAA takes a more liberal approach and there ends up being another pilot related crash, the FAA will be under heavy scrutiny and the public will want to know why they let that pilot fly. We want pilots to receive the necessary help, but if they’re receiving treatment, appear to be fit to fly again, and then cause an accident in the future (whether it’s intentional or accidental), they will be looked at as if it was suicidal in nature. I can easily compare this to law enforcement and policing, and this feels like a lose-lose situation regardless of which way we steer it. Throughout my career in the military, I dealt with my fair share of suicides, both ideations and completed in nature. Two of the many situations actually involved police officers. In both instances (which occurred at different time periods), friends of mine armed up for the day with the required duty weapon, isolated themselves in a different location, and utilized that weapon to take their own lives. Sure, we can look for triggers, indicators, signs, etc. but in my experience, while there was always a trigger, sometimes it was impossible to identify until after the event occurred. We give police offers guns, provide pilots with planes, doctors with knives, and we have faith that they will utilize those objects in the appropriately intended way. That was, and continues to be the risk we face, and the harsh reality is that there is nothing we can do to eradicate it. What type of baggage or psychological arsenal do you bring to work each day?

References

Bruggen, P., & Persaud, R. (2015, August 15). Inside the Mind of The Pilot Who Flies to Crash. Retrieved from             https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/slightly-blighty/201508/inside-the-mind-the-pilot-who-flies-crash

Federal Aviation Administration (2016, June 9). Fact Sheet: Pilot Mental Fitness. Retrieved from https://                  www.faa.gov/news/fact_sheets/news_story.cfm?newsId=20455

Hammer, J. (2016, February 22). The Real Story of Germanwings Flight 9525. Retrieved from https://www.                    gq.com/story/germanwings-flight-9525-final-moments