Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms and Attitudes toward the China Eastern Airlines Plane Crash in Transportation Students

On 21 March 2022, a China Eastern Airlines plane with 132 people on board crashed and all people are presumed dead. This study aimed to explore mental health symptoms and attitudes toward the plane crash among flight and train attendant students and the general public. A cross-sectional online survey was conducted two weeks after the plane crash. Mental health symptoms, including posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS), depressive, anxiety, and insomnia symptoms were assessed. A total of 494 participants were included, of which 183 were flight (n = 140) and train (n = 43) attendant students (aged 17.3 ± 1.7 years, 80.9% were female), and 311 were sampled from the general population (aged 26.7 ± 7.8 years, 62.1% were female). The prevalence of depressive, anxiety, and insomnia symptoms, and PTSS was 51.9%, 40.4%, 25.1%, and 12.6% in the transportation students, and 45.3%, 36.0%, 17.4%, and 4.2% in the general public sample, respectively. The students reported more frequent insomnia symptoms and PTSS than the general public sample. In the student group, compared with those without PTSS, those with PTSS reported significantly higher rates of depressive, anxiety, and insomnia symptoms. Two weeks after a plane crash, mental health symptoms are common in the general public and transportation students, with the latter being more likely to have PTSS symptoms. Our findings suggest the importance to identify risk groups when developing interventions after indirect exposure to traumatic events.