Pilots and Depression Revisited

In this final blog post I will be examining different aspects of pilots and depression. I want to start by going more in depth on the accident that I had used in my original blog. The accident was the Mozambique Airlines flight TM470 that crashed in Namibia in 2013. Captain of the flight, Herminio dos Santos Fernandes, is responsible for this tragedy. The Embraer 190 (E-190) had gone down in a remote area of southwestern Africa. Data from the cockpit voice recorder indicate that minutes before the crash, the co-pilot left the cockpit for the bathroom, and returned to find the door shut (Riva, 2013). With the first officer leaving, it gave the captain the perfect opportunity to lock him out. The flight data recorder, or black box, indicates according to preliminary results that the captain manually changed on the autopilot the flight altitude from 38,000 feet to below ground level (Riva, 2013). With the first officer not able to gain access to the cockpit the plane ultimately flew itself into the ground and killed all 33 people that were on the flight. Had there been another way to access the cockpit a lot would have been different that day.

This accident is very similar to the Germanwings crash, which is what makes it a good example of a trend with depression in pilots. The details are so close that even the cause of the depression is close to the same. Unverified rumors suggest Herminio may have had marital problems, and that a son had died. He and the first officer had both passed their routine medical tests recently (Riva, 2013).

Obviously a professional psychological evaluation should have been administered to these men. I believe that this should be part of an aviation physical for any pilot with their ATP. There are many forms of evaluations, but I think that the most effective would be a combination of a norm-referenced test and a psychological interview. A psychological interview is pretty much self-explanatory with a person being one on one with a psychologist. Norm-references psychological tests are standardized on a clearly defined group, termed the norm group, and scaled so that each individual score reflects a rank within the norm group (Framingham, 2011). If there could be a test created to fit the different groups of pilots it could help determine if the pilot is psychologically stable. There could be groups such as, married, single, high hours, low hours, and so forth.

We could lump pilots into separate groups and issue tests that fit them. These tests could be given when the pilot goes for his/her physical. If any irregularity shows up on their test then they could be called in to a separate facility to have a one on one interview with a psychologist. This would ultimately save time without having to see a psychologist as well as a licensed physician just for a regular physical.

If a pilot is diagnosed with depression he or she can take only a select few medications to treat it. These are the four medications that the FAA allows pilots to take if suffering from depression, Fluoxetine (Prozac), Sertraline (Zoloft), Citalopram (Celexa), Escialopram (Lexapro) (Silberman, 2014). Once on one of these medications for any period of time there is a very long and drawn out process in which a pilot has to complete to return to flying. I personally feel that it should be a long process, because the pilots should be completely sure of themselves before returning to active flying.

I think that any pilot should be of complete sound mind when getting behind the yoke. I also think that physicals now should focus on the pilot’s minds as well as the body. Yes, implementing these changes will cost more money in the long run, but at the end of the day you are talking about human lives that are at stake. If a pilot suffers from any kind of mental instability it should be caught in the many fail-safes that are in place. Obviously, depression is a concern and there is virtually nothing in place to catch it other than the pilot coming out and saying it to his or her physician there needs to be a change. Adding the systems I named above would be perfect, because it would be a quick way to establish if depression might exist in a pilot’s life. It could be checked at the same time they go in to get their annual or biannual medical. Thus, reducing the amount of pilots that may being flying with depression and potentially saving many lives.

References

Framingham, J. (2011, January 7). What is a psychological assessment. PsychCentral. Retrieved from http://psychcentral.com/lib/what-is-psychological-assessment/

Riva, A. (2013, December 24). Pilot suicide: When it's the captain who crashes the plane. International Business Times. Retrieved from http://www.ibtimes.com/pilot-suicide-when-its-captain-who-crashes-plane-1519756

Silberman, W. (2014, November 3). Antidepressant medications and flying. Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association. Retrieved from http://pilot-protection-services.aopa.org/News/2014/November/Depression