Drugs are being found more often in the bodies of pilots killed in aircraft crashes, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NSTB) says.
In a report released Tuesday, the NTSB said that the presence of prescription, over-the-counter and illegal drugs has increased since an earlier study, conducted in 2014.
The new study, Safety Research Report: 2013–2017 Update to Drug Use Trends in Aviation, examined toxicology test results for 952 pilots killed in crashes. The study found that 28 percent of the pilots tested positive for at least one drug that the NTSB considered “potentially impairing,” compared with 23 percent in the 2014 study.
Specifically, the new study said that 15 percent tested positive for at least one drug that indicated the pilot had a potentially impairing condition, an increase of about 3 percentage points from the 2014 study. Test results also showed evidence that 10…
