Drugs Found in Fatally Injured Pilots Increases
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The prevalence of prescription, over-the-counter and illicit drugs found in bodies of fatally injured pilots has continued to trend upwards, according to a finding in the National Transportation Safety Board’s Safety Research Report. Almost all of the crashes – 97% – were in general aviation.
Investigators noted apositive toxicology finding didn’t necessarily indicate that the pilot was impairedat the time of the crash, only that the pilot had used a specific drug (ordrugs) at some point prior to the fatal accident.
Ofthe 952 pilots fatally injured between 2013 and 2017 with available toxicologytest results, 28% tested positive for at least one potentially impairing drug, upfrom 23% in a similar 2014 study. About 5% tested positive foran illicit drug, a slight increase from the less than 4% in the 2014 study.
The FAA, in response to an NTSB recommendation, recently publishedguidance to pilots for reading and understanding medication labels as well asinformation on how long a pilot should wait before flying after using apotentially impairing drug.
“Simply put,impairment can kill,” said NTSB Chairman Robert L. Sumwalt. “There’s still a lotof work to do to eliminate impairment-related accidents on the roads, on therails, on the water and in the skies.”
Safety Research Report 20-01 is available online at https://go.usa.gov/xdH5W.
The 2014 study is available at https://go.usa.gov/xphce.
FAA information for pilots about impairing drugs is available online at https://go.usa.gov/xphcG.
