Why are airplane pilots' mental health concerns going untreated?
HOUSTON - You may have heard about an off-duty pilot who's now charged with dozens of counts of attempted murder after trying to stop the airplane engines mid-flight. Well, it raises a lot of questions about how often pilots are screened, and whether we should be concerned about who's in the cockpit the next time we fly.
If something goes physically or mentally wrong for a pilot during a flight it can be catastrophic, so a lot of people are always watching them.
"It is the most scrutinized profession that I know of," says Pilot Terence Fontaine.
With such scrutiny on pilots, how can things like last week's incident on Alaska Airlines happen? Pilot Joseph Emerson is now charged with 83 counts of attempted murder after he's said to have been suffering from depression and high on drugs while trying to bring down an Alaska Airlines flight full of people.
"Some pilots believe even the admittance of a little bit of a problem could create a situation where they may lose their license," Fontaine explains.
Fontaine is a former airline pilot, was in the U.S. Marine Corps, and he's in his sixth year as the Executive Director of Aviation at Texas Southern University, where they now have 156 Freshman Aviation students, the largest in the school's history. "We just received our first brand-new aircraft last week. The president of the university actually flew with one of our students in the aircraft, which is cool," explains Fontaine who says pilots, including him, have to regularly get medical screenings to keep their pilot's license.
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"I didn't know I was diabetic. I ran into a situation where now I'm under some medication, so I can't fly," Fontaine goes on to say. "If you're under age 40 you get to go once a year. However, if you're over age 40 you go to the doctor twice a year. (And the doctor is screening for what?) Oh everything, everything, eyesight, blood pressure, the whole works".
Also, twice a year, "Pilots need to literally reapply for their jobs every six months," says Fontaine.
That's how often airline pilots must prove themselves in a simulator. "And do things like rejected takeoffs and rapid decompressions and engine fires."
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So how can mental health issues or drug abuse slip by? "A lot of things you're speaking of are things that need to be self-disclosed, which is part of the issue. A recent report said 5,000 pilots are not disclosing their mental or physical illness," says Fontaine.
The pilots are not disclosing, for fear of losing their job. "You've got a mortgage, kids in school, and so on. The chances of you losing your job because you've disclosed something that may be detrimental to you keeping your Pilots License is a real thing...If you're caught not disclosing information they potentially can give you five years in prison and a $250,000 fine," Fontaine says. "The FAA, the pilot unions, and the airlines need to huddle. They need to huddle and create a better environment for these folks to disclose without the scrutiny of possibly losing their license."
So can we expect any changes any time soon? Some say they don't think so.