Just over 21 years ago, my father, a British Airways Pilot, died at home. He killed himself. He wasn’t the first airline pilot to reach breaking point and he won’t be the last.

We know that suicide is the leading cause of death in men under 50 in the UK but...

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let’s not pretend some people, some industries, are immune. Aircrew are not ‘stronger’ or ‘more robust’ than others. Mental illness is not a sign of weakness.

Pilots, and indeed all aviation professionals, suffer from mental health problems. Often, the stigma within the

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industry especially, and the effect upon medicals etc, means that people don’t get help.

The recent hit that aviation has taken has really demonstrated that. Especially now, plenty of crew are likely to be suffering from mental health issues and not seeking help for...

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fear of it being a factor in redundancy decisions. Some airlines have already demonstrated that they will use sickness rates as a factor, further making mental health in aviation an issue.

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This *needs* to change & talking about mental health is a start.

Aircrew are not immune. We are not special. We are humans working in a difficult, often desperately lonely, environment.

#mentalhealth #crm #humanfactors