The country’s aviation industry has a pilot problem, Helen O’Yang said New York Times Magazine. It’s a bit of a CATCH-22 when it comes to mental health. Pilots who need depression or similar illnesses know that if they are seeking treatment they will never be allowed to fly again. In other words, rules intended to keep air travel safe can have the opposite effect by giving pilots an incentive to hide their problems. “All the pilots I interviewed for this article knew of a colleague who hid medical issues from the FAA,” writes Ouyang. Some “accepted doing so on their own. The supervisor told me that he urged me not to report any health issues.” This work includes several first-person examples.
The tragedy that has been in place since 2015 continues to cast a major shadow over the debate. The German Wings pilot (trained in the US) deliberately flew into the mountains of the French Alps, causing the deaths of 150 people. The incident continues to affect policy, Ouyang notes. Strict rules will keep pilots out of the cockpit after diagnosis of mental illness or prescribing certain medications. The story takes a closer look at attempts to find solutions, including the introduction of the Aviation Health Act in Congress last year.
One potential area of improvement is “technology-based screening). For example, we use BioWearables to track heart rate variability and subtle skin changes to assess the mental state of pilots before flight,” writes Ouyang. The film includes interviews with a US pilot who was accused of trying to turn off the engines of Alaska Airlines’ jet mid flight. He and his wife have since started a nonprofit organization aimed at improving the health of pilots. (Read Ouyang’s complete story here. (Pilot stories from other airlines.)
