Cardiac Inflight Incapacitations of U.S. Airline Pilots: 1995-2015.

Area of Science:

• Aviation Medicine
• Cardiology
• Aerospace Human Factors

Background:

• Inflight medical incapacitations pose risks to aviation safety.
• Cardiac emergencies are a significant concern among inflight medical events.
• Certification authorities require attention to potential in-flight medical events.

Purpose of the Study:

• To determine if the proportion of pilots with cardiac conditions can identify those experiencing inflight medical incapacitations.
• To analyze the relationship between pilot cardiac history and inflight medical events.

Main Methods:

• Utilized the Civil Aerospace Medical Institute Inflight Incapacitation Registry (1995-2015).
• Identified airline pilots with cardiac history and inflight medical events.
• Compared cardiovascular history of incapacitated pilots with a control group from the FAA Decision Support System.

Main Results:

• A higher proportion of incapacitated pilots had pacemakers compared to controls with similar cardiac history.
• No significant differences were found in other cardiac health markers between the groups.

Conclusions:

• The proportion of pilots with identified cardiac conditions is not a reliable predictor of inflight incapacitations.
• Further research may be needed to identify reliable predictors for inflight medical events in pilots.