Mentally ill pilot ‘would be detected’

Press, 1 March 1982, Page 27

Mentally ill pilot ‘would be detected’

PA Auckland The pilot of the Japan Air Lines DCB which crashed into Tokyo Bay had been passed by airline doctors fit to fly after suffering a psychosomatic illness late in 1980. But Air New Zealand's principal medical officer (Dr Len Thompson) says that the chance of a pilot with similar mental problems continuing to fly commercial aircraft in New Zealand is extremely remote. If fellow pilots, or the family of the afflicted pilot failed to report that something was wrong, the Civil Aviation Division’s sixmonthly medical checks on airline pilots would discover the condition. Dr Thompson said that from what he had read in press reports, the Japanese pilot suffered from a psychosis. “From what I’ve seen, I would be very surprised if a

pilot taken off flying for this reason ever managed to regain his airline pilot’s licence. “He would be treated with medication, and he could not return to flying while undergoing this treatment. After this was finished he would have a difficult job regaining his licence.’’ Dr Thompson emphasised that the Civil Aviation Division, not airline doctors, were responsible for withdrawing or issuing flying licences. . Pilots with mental or emotional problems were very quickly brought to the notice of airline and Civil Aviation doctors by their collegues or family. “The symptoms often show up fairly suddenly, thoughwith others the onset is more subtle,” he said. “It would be most unlikely that they would go undetected at the six-monthly medical check.”