A mental health study of French airline pilots suggests a quarter of them grapple with serious mental health issues, including a few who had attempted suicide. It also found that more than 40% of the 1220 pilots who filled out the anonymous questionnaire had “misused” alcohol. About 3% had suicidal thoughts and three had tried to kill themselves. The survey interpretations were published in the journal Frontiers in Public Health.
“The results highlight that a significant proportion of French pilots suffer from psychological symptoms,” the study’s conclusions said. “A concerning finding was that more than a third of pilots exhibited alcohol misuse, which needs prevention efforts to reduce health risks.” About 28% of those surveyed said they would hide mental health issues from air medical examiners for fear of losing their licenses while 54% said they would talk about their problems if that fear was eliminated. About 15% said they’d sought help for psychological problems.
How much more than one third abusing alcohol? Perhaps… two…
Until around 2010, Air France pilots were always offered and served a glass of wine with their main meal on long flights if they wanted it, with no adverse effects.
After the Toronto A340 crash in 2005 rumour had it that the pilot, on his last flight with family and friends on board, had, maybe had glass or two of champagne, but the
Canadian blood test came back negative.
The conclusion was it is not a good idea to land with a gusting 60 kph tailwind on a short runway in a thunderstorm. Who would have thought it?
More generally though, commercial pilots in France and elsewhere do not appear to be particularly healthy, even though in France they are in the air for only three days a week.
Even the young ones look overweight and pasty.
The days the pilots would leap out of bed and go for a run outside, in any part of the world are with the generation retired at 60.
And pasty fat men are prone to depression. No matter how well paid they are.
I suspect these numbers would not be too dissimilar if run in other nations, especially the part about being more willing to seek treatment if the fear of losing one’s job was reduced.
The days of flying a maximum of 75 hours a month and more often 65-68 hours a month with work rules significantly better than FARs is gone too. Pilots are as disposable as the planes they fly, in the eyes of airline managements. When they can be replaced with better tech at a lower price, they are.
It took a special breed ( and a horrendous accident rate) to move from the mail-running biplanes to the trans-oceanic props to the jets pioneering the upper atmosphere. Then Concorde got mothballed and airline flying became a commodity and advances in safety largely took the requirement of pilotage away. Many of the decisions that a veteran pilot would be forced to make are now handled by ground stops for weather or preferred routes from ATC bosses in Washington. Now the pilot does what their told, follows the changing SOPs, and doesn’t say something that might be videoed.
And pasty pilots can do that just fine
Have you got cites for that?
[Extraordinary claims demand extraordinary evidence.]
Thanks for your reply. I suspected that the OP was - at best - misinformed; at worst - well, never mind.
'Tis always great to hear from folks with actual experience to draw from - that’s what keeps me coming back.
When i misuse alcohol, i fall asleep in my easy chair with the whiskey tumbler and ice melted. Then my drink is watered down and the old lady is yelling at me to wake up. I hate it when that happens. )
This isn’t a new issue — the latest French study backs up what Harvard found in 2016: pilots face serious mental health challenges, but many won’t seek help for fear of losing their license.
In France, over 40% reported alcohol misuse, 3% had suicidal thoughts, and three had attempted suicide, according to the study. 28% said they’d hide mental health issues, but over 50% would seek help if job loss weren’t a threat.
The Harvard study found similar patterns in the U.S., with 13% showing signs of depression and 4% reporting suicidal thoughts, but pilots stayed silent due to fear of FAA repercussions.
Same stress. Different rules. And that still decides who gets help.
That is serious.
On the west coast one cure was to give a troubled pilot a pass to Schick Shadel recovery centre just south of Seattle, one chance to keep job.
Pat O’Day - Wikipedia - marriage failed because of his use of intoxicants and partying with athletes and musicians. Very talented but troubled, just like them. (When retired to the San Juans he had a second wife, he is gone.)
Closed now, it had a particular method - aversion therapy, and a no-charge return policy if feeling too stressed.
Schick Shadel Hospital – #1 Success Rate for Treating Alcoholism with link to a phone line for help from others.
Whereas a network of recording studio musicians in Los Angeles were like proper pilots - talented, innovative when needed, reliable. That was key to steady good-paying work. Detailed in the book The Wrecking Crew (title obscure in their history, nothing to do with crashing). The Wrecking Crew: The Inside Story of Rock and Roll’s Best-Kept Secret: Hartman, Kent: 9781250030467: Books - Amazon.ca
My flight instructor used to tell me I was misusing the rudder when landing a tailwheel. I needed to use it much more. Perhaps the third who are “misusing” alcohol just are lacking training in its proper application.
Alcohol is widely used and sometimes abused among flight crews. There are a lot of issues involved to its use, other than Mental Health issues. Flying on the backside of the clock, and long duty days can all lead to excessive alcohol use. But at the FAA we have a problem, and It’s a serious one, and its Medical Denials, and the extremely long periods it takes to resolve them. The FAA is unable to resolve these denials in a timely manner, because they don’t have the staffing to do so. As hard as the aeromedical Dr. try, they just can’t catch up.
One way to help resolve this is through legislation. I have spoken to my Congressional representative regarding this issue, and they had no idea how bad this was. One solution, among many that I suggested was, that the AME should be allowed to review medicals and issue re-instatements, many of us see the same AME year over year, who better to help resolve a medical issue than him? only the most severe of the cases should go to OKC.
It’s not only a mental health issue, but also a medical issue in total. The only way to resolve this is through legislation, FAA on its own it’s not going to solve this problem, and it’s getting worse not better. So, I urge all of you, to write your representative and asked them for support and talk to representative Loise Francois Rep from Florida.
It’s the only way.
Thought I’d share that the Pilot Mental Health Campaign (https://www.pmhc.org/) is working to reform how the FAA approaches mental health, including successfully advocating for the reintroduction of the Mental Health in Aviation Act (H.R. 2591) and the Aviation Medication Transparency Act (H.R. 2592).