Dodge, duck, dip, dive, dodge. The five D's.

 

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAmen

 

My response to your if “stressed” and could benefit from basic health care, yes BASIC, you suggest leaving the profession. I’m just responding with hyperbole to your hyperbole.

And also responding to dodgeball and people need to man up mumbo jumbo.

 

‘Take a break’ is what I said. Gaslight someone else. Serious business. Scores of working airline pilots take their own life every year. Lonely, faceless routine this job can turn into for some folks. Read the study. Stow the hyperbole.

 

Well then, take an LOA and come back in two months and F the FAA. No? That’s the driving point. THAT is what I’m suggesting since EVERY other profession has that. We’re on the same side.

 

A suicidal pilot should not be flying. Not debateable.

That's more than "a little break."

 

says you? Who defines suicidal, you? Deny care before it gets suicidal. Says you? That’s what the issue is. Suicidal is who? Says who? Blood on the hands of those who push those who need care to choose between unemployment and care.

 

I believe we are. Pilots are people & the FAA is no resource for treatment. Airman medical applications are short term contracts with long term consequences. Use of medical benefits requires careful planning for countless healthcare conditions. Commonplace as they may appear.

 

You just cited a quote stuipulating that "scores of working airline pilots take their own life." By defnition, a pilot who takes his or her own life is suicidal. I don't define it. The pilot who takes his or her own life defines it.

If someone is suicidal, they have no place in the cockpit. None.

If the FAA determines that a person with this level of trouble needs to be removed from the cockpit, there is no room for debate that the FAA is wrong. The FAA is not wrong.

The sentiment that a pilot should have health care with impunity doesn't hold water, any more than a pilot with a cardiac condition should kep flying until he recovers. Suicidal ideology is adequate to warrant grounding.

I said nothing about me defining suicidal. Not my department, not my lane. Professionals do that. There is, however, no room for debate that a suicidal pilot has no business in the cockpit.

 

How many airmen removed for clinical depression without self diagnosis, disclosure? I don’t know. Did know two who called it quits with a gun. Both at home, where they lived alone. The system runs largely on trust and peer oversight. It's a profession that can handle measured, wider access to advanced meds and therapy given that discretion, imho.