PORTLAND, Ore. (KATU) — Following last month’s emergency landing of an Alaska Airlines jet, the Federal Aviation Administration announced a new commission to study pilot mental health and the barriers pilots face in reporting mental health issues to the Federal Aviation Administration. did.
Concerns about pilots’ mental health are growing after pilots go off-duty joseph emerson He claimed last month that he had been battling depression, was charged with trying to crash an Alaska Airlines plane, and recently was picking mushrooms And I hadn’t slept for 40 hours.
Aviation analyst and pilot John Nance said the FAA is taking the right approach.
“I think the FAA’s efforts are thorough,” Nance said. “That’s not because there’s much more to be done that hasn’t been done, but because it’s always appropriate for aviation safety to ask, ‘Can we do more?'” ? ”
This committee is called the Pilot Mental Health Aviation Rulemaking Committee (ARC). Pilots are required to report certain mental health conditions to trained aviation medical examiners who determine their fitness to fly.
FAA officials said they were unable to speak with KATU on Saturday, but sent out a press release saying the panel would build on previous efforts the agency has made to prioritize the mental health of pilots.
According to the release, that includes:
- Strengthening mental health training for medical examiners
- Supporting industry-wide research and clinical research on pilot mental health
- Hire additional mental health professionals to expand in-house expertise and reduce wait times for return-to-flight decisions
- Revised policy to reduce frequency of cognitive testing for pilots who complete clinical studies and use antidepressants
- Increase outreach to pilot groups to educate them about available resources.
Nance said some pilots may be reluctant to report mental health issues to flight inspectors for fear of being grounded.
People were very reluctant to go down that path, not only for financial reasons, but also for reputational reasons. I don’t know if you can change much about that. But we have to get to the point where we can provide people with the support they need without ruining their careers. There may be a lot of debate about how to do that,” Nance said.
Emerson has pleaded not guilty to attempted murder charges in Oregon state court. He is scheduled to be arraigned later this month on federal charges of interfering with flight crew.
