Mental health problems, often difficult to diagnose during aeromedical exams, have rarely factored in airline accidents and incidents (see “Related Accidents”).
Official accident reports attribute a handful of crashes to a pilot’s deliberate action, citing a “psychosomatic disorder,” a suicide attempt or some unexplained motive. In some cases, those conclusions were challenged.
Most recently, the lawyer representing a JetBlue captain told a federal court that his client would plead that he was insane during a March 27 flight in which he allegedly turned off the radios, told his first officer on the Las Vegas–bound Airbus A320 that “we need to take a leap of faith” and “we’re not going to Vegas,” and began yelling about Jesus and terrorists.1,2
The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said that after the captain left the cockpit for the lavatory, the first officer asked an off-duty JetBlue pilot to come to the…
