PILOT SPIN
Pilot Zone => Accident Review/Never Again (I hope..) => Topic started by: PeterNSteinmetz on October 24, 2021, 07:48:43 AM
-
Not a lot of details as yet. I was flying in the area earlier that day and it was windy. About 20 knots at the surface and 40 knots by the time you got to 1500 AGL or so. I don't recall if the winds died down in the evening or not.
https://www.valleynewslive.com/2021/10/19/und-student-pilot-dies-plane-crash-near-buxton/
https://flightaware.com/live/flight/NDU20/history/20211019/0001Z/KGFK/L%2047.56535%20-97.02033
Some reports saying it was suicide. :(
(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20211024/2cba7ce464a7386b8822c94e35917790.jpg)
https://planecrashmap.com/plane/sd/N294ND/
http://www.kathrynsreport.com/2021/10/piper-pa-28-181-archer-tx-n820nd-fatal.html
-
Valley News Life couldn’t get someone other than a freshman student to comment? Irresponsible.
-
Some have wondered whether the FAA treatment of mental illness contributes to the rate of this sort of thing.
Now I am not any sort of fan of FAA medicals for pilots (in fact I think they likely do nothing for the safety of flight and should be eliminated), however, I don’t know that they really impact the suicide rate amongst pilots.
Firstly, I have not seen evidence that the suicide rate amongst pilots is necessarily any higher by age group than the general population.
Secondly, even if it is higher, could there be other causes? For one thing, it is likely easier for pilots to successfully commit suicide than the average person.
Of course I could always be persuaded by data to the contrary.
-
Some have wondered whether the FAA treatment of mental illness contributes to the rate of this sort of thing.
Now I am not any sort of fan of FAA medicals for pilots (in fact I think they likely do nothing for the safety of flight and should be eliminated), however, I don’t know that they really impact the suicide rate amongst pilots.
Firstly, I have not seen evidence that the suicide rate amongst pilots is necessarily any higher by age group than the general population.
Secondly, even if it is higher, could there be other causes? For one thing, it is likely easier for pilots to successfully commit suicide than the average person.
Of course I could always be persuaded by data to the contrary.
I wonder if any pilots ever commit suicide because they are afraid the FAA is going to yank their medical for some obscure reason.
-
Any study would have to control for age, race, occupation other than pilot, country of residence, socioeconomic status, gender or lack thereof, marital situation, and so on. You’d have to really tease out “flies airplanes” from all the other confounding factors.