Grief in the grounded aviator

Grounding aviators is an important and difficult aspect of being a flight surgeon. The psychological impact that grounding has on a flier may not only represent a serious pathological process in itself, but may also detrimentally affect the flight surgeon's relationships with other crewmembers. Grounding represents a loss to the aviator, the severity of which varies with pre-morbid motivation to fly. As a loss, grounding elicits grief; this must be dealt with effectively by the patient, with the help of the flight surgeon, or an unresolved grief reaction may cripple the ex-flier and hinder the flight surgeon's effectiveness.