Pilot Mental Health: Safety Board Chair Calls for FAA Action on 'Bureaucratic Nightmare'

Just two years ago, the head of the Federal Aviation Administration, Steve Dickson, encouraged pilots to seek mental health treatment if needed, but also referred to the risk to their careers of doing so as “perceived."

But at a summit about mental health Wednesday, it was clear that the risk to any aviation professional’s career is very real.

“There’s a culture right now, which is not surprising to me, that you either lie or you seek help,” said Jennifer Homendy, chair of the National Transportation Safety Board, which held the event in Washington, D.C. “We can’t have that. That’s not safety.”

The issue received new attention in October after an Alaska Airlines pilot Joseph Emerson nearly brought down a plane in while suffering a mental health crisis. Emerson said that he had experienced depression-like symptoms since the death of a friend in 2018 — some five years before the incident.