Pilot Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Fatal Aviation Accidents: A Descriptive Study

Abstract

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) database was searched to identify fatal accidents in aviation related to trauma and stressor-related disorders in the United States and the medical requirements of aviation authorities were assessed. Between 2000 and 2015, eight pilots with a diagnosis of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD; of which two were aviation-related PTSDs) died in aviation accidents. These results indicate a minimum frequency of history of diagnosed PTSD in aviation fatalities to be 8 out of 4,862 fatal accidents (0.16%) in the United States. The guidance from aviation regulatory authorities is to medically assess pilots with a prior history of PTSD based on individual functional impairment and treatment response. The assessment of individual impairment would be significantly improved by the systematic data collection following aviation- and work-related traumatic events. It is also important for investigators to recognize the traumatization that occurs in aviation accident and incident investigations.