On doctors’ accountability and flight deck safety

Vuorio, Alpo; Laukkala, Tanja; Navathe, Pooshan; Budowle, Bruce; Eyre, Anne; Sajantila, Antti

doi:10.3325/cmj.2015.56.385

Cited by 3 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…Data on aircraft-assisted pilot suicides are often limited due to the rarity of the phenomenon and limited information on the evaluation of possible psychiatric medical records. A psychological autopsy might be useful in the analysis of pilot suicides [ 3 , 8 , 23 ]. Data on the incidence of all pilot suicides irrespective of method, which was not accessible, would have been a valuable addition to this study.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Copycats in Pilot Aircraft-Assisted Suicides after the Germanwings Incident

Laukkala¹,

Vuorio

Bor

et al. 2018

IJERPH

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Aircraft-assisted pilot suicide is a rare but serious phenomenon. The aim of this study was to evaluate changes in pilot aircraft-assisted suicide risks, i.e., a copycat effect, in the U.S. and Germany after the Germanwings 2015 incident in the French Alps. Aircraft-assisted pilot suicides were searched in the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) accident investigation database and in the German Bundestelle für Flugunfalluntersuchung (BFU) Reports of Investigation database five years before and two years after the deliberate crash of the Germanwings flight into the French Alps in 2015. The relative risk (RR) of the aircraft-assisted pilot suicides was calculated. Two years after the incident, three out of 454 (0.66%) fatal incidents were aircraft-assisted suicides compared with six out of 1292 (0.46%) in the prior five years in the NTSB database. There were no aircraft-assisted pilot suicides in the German database during the two years after or five years prior to the Germanwings crash. The relative aircraft-assisted pilot suicide risk for the U.S. was 1.4 (95% CI 0.3–4.2) which was not statistically significant. Six of the pilots who died by suicide had told someone of their suicidal intentions. We consider changes in the rate to be within a normal variation. Responsible media coverage of aircraft incidents is important due to the large amount of publicity that these events attract.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…After the deliberate Germanwings incident in the French Alps on 24 March 2015, there has been concern over a possible copycat effect in aircraft-assisted pilot suicides [ 2 , 4 , 23 , 24 , 25 ]. The Germanwings incident shared some features with a fatal aviation crash in 2013 in Namibia [ 1 , 26 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Copycats in Pilot Aircraft-Assisted Suicides after the Germanwings Incident

Laukkala¹,

Vuorio

Bor

et al. 2018

IJERPH

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“…In 2016, the European Aviation Safety Authority (EASA) submitted a Working Paper to the European Commission on the issue of balancing patient confidentiality and public safety [ 9 ]. While individual health examinations will never be able to prevent all serious aircraft accidents due to health issues, they can likely help reduce such events within the context of pilot privacy and public and pilot safety [ 10 ]. The Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) report was based on a study of 6677 pilots fatally injured in accidents in U.S. between 1990 and 2012 [ 11 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Duty of Notification and Aviation Safety—A Study of Fatal Aviation Accidents in the United States in 2015

Vuorio

Budowle

Sajantila

et al. 2018

IJERPH

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After the Germanwings accident, the French Safety Investigation Authority (BEA) recommended that the World Health Organization (WHO) and European Community (EC) develop clear rules for the duty of notification process. Aeromedical practitioners (AMEs) face a dilemma when considering the duty of notification and conflicts between pilot privacy and public and third-party safety. When balancing accountability, knowledge of the duty of notification process, legislation and the clarification of a doctor’s own set of values should be assessed a priori. Relatively little is known of the magnitude of this problem in aviation safety. To address this, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) database was searched to identify fatal accidents during 2015 in the United States in which a deceased pilot used a prescribed medication or had a disease that potentially reduced pilot performance and was not reported to the AME. Altogether, 202 finalized accident reports with toxicology were available from (the year) 2015. In 5% (10/202) of these reports, the pilot had either a medication or a disease not reported to an AME which according to the accident investigation was causal to the fatal accident. In addition, the various approaches to duty of notification in aviation in New Zealand, Finland and Norway are discussed. The process of notification of authorities without a pilot’s express permission needs to be carried out by using a guidance protocol that works within legislation and professional responsibilities to address the pilot and the public, as well as the healthcare provider. Professional guidance defining this duty of notification is urgently needed.

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