Health-Related Factors Among Pilots in Aviation Accidents

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Health-related factors can impact aviation safety. This study investigated the published, historical aviation accidents that have been investigated by the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTS B) to understand medical conditions and medication use that have been determined to be causal to mishaps. METHODS: A two-part approach was adopted for this study: 1) a scoping review was conducted to provide an overview of the current medical literature addressing medical factors and flight safety; and 2) a comprehensive review of aviation accident reports from the NTS B database from January 2013 to October 2022. RESULTS: The literature review demonstrated that psychiatric, cardiovascular, and neurological medications were the major categories of medications reported in fatal aircraft accidents. Age was not found to be a risk factor. Review of the NTS B database demonstrated that, among 15,654 mishaps, medical factors were associated in 703 (4.5%) accidents. NTS B data showed that cardiovascular (1.3%), psychiatric (0.23%), and endocrine diseases (0.17%) were the most commonly reported diseases among pilots. In accident reports, cardiovascular medications (1.49%), sedating antihistamines (0.91%), and alcohol (0.70%) were the most commonly used medications at the time of the accidents. DISCUSSION: Health-related factors were a small yet likely underestimated proportion of the factors associated with accidents. Cardiovascular diseases and treatment were the most important factors. It is important to continue to investigate the association between health-related factors and the commission of mishaps.