Cargando…

Copycats in Pilot Aircraft-Assisted Suicides after the Germanwings Incident

Aircraft-assisted pilot suicide is a rare but serious phenomenon. The aim of this study was to evaluate changes in pilot aircraft-assisted suicide risks, i.e., a copycat effect, in the U.S. and Germany after the Germanwings 2015 incident in the French Alps. Aircraft-assisted pilot suicides were sear...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Laukkala, Tanja, Vuorio, Alpo, Bor, Robert, Budowle, Bruce, Navathe, Pooshan, Pukkala, Eero, Sajantila, Antti
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5877036/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29534475
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15030491
_version_ 1783310616720572416
author Laukkala, Tanja
Vuorio, Alpo
Bor, Robert
Budowle, Bruce
Navathe, Pooshan
Pukkala, Eero
Sajantila, Antti
author_facet Laukkala, Tanja
Vuorio, Alpo
Bor, Robert
Budowle, Bruce
Navathe, Pooshan
Pukkala, Eero
Sajantila, Antti
author_sort Laukkala, Tanja
collection PubMed
description Aircraft-assisted pilot suicide is a rare but serious phenomenon. The aim of this study was to evaluate changes in pilot aircraft-assisted suicide risks, i.e., a copycat effect, in the U.S. and Germany after the Germanwings 2015 incident in the French Alps. Aircraft-assisted pilot suicides were searched in the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) accident investigation database and in the German Bundestelle für Flugunfalluntersuchung (BFU) Reports of Investigation database five years before and two years after the deliberate crash of the Germanwings flight into the French Alps in 2015. The relative risk (RR) of the aircraft-assisted pilot suicides was calculated. Two years after the incident, three out of 454 (0.66%) fatal incidents were aircraft-assisted suicides compared with six out of 1292 (0.46%) in the prior five years in the NTSB database. There were no aircraft-assisted pilot suicides in the German database during the two years after or five years prior to the Germanwings crash. The relative aircraft-assisted pilot suicide risk for the U.S. was 1.4 (95% CI 0.3–4.2) which was not statistically significant. Six of the pilots who died by suicide had told someone of their suicidal intentions. We consider changes in the rate to be within a normal variation. Responsible media coverage of aircraft incidents is important due to the large amount of publicity that these events attract.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-5877036
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2018
publisher MDPI
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-58770362018-04-09 Copycats in Pilot Aircraft-Assisted Suicides after the Germanwings Incident Laukkala, Tanja Vuorio, Alpo Bor, Robert Budowle, Bruce Navathe, Pooshan Pukkala, Eero Sajantila, Antti Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Aircraft-assisted pilot suicide is a rare but serious phenomenon. The aim of this study was to evaluate changes in pilot aircraft-assisted suicide risks, i.e., a copycat effect, in the U.S. and Germany after the Germanwings 2015 incident in the French Alps. Aircraft-assisted pilot suicides were searched in the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) accident investigation database and in the German Bundestelle für Flugunfalluntersuchung (BFU) Reports of Investigation database five years before and two years after the deliberate crash of the Germanwings flight into the French Alps in 2015. The relative risk (RR) of the aircraft-assisted pilot suicides was calculated. Two years after the incident, three out of 454 (0.66%) fatal incidents were aircraft-assisted suicides compared with six out of 1292 (0.46%) in the prior five years in the NTSB database. There were no aircraft-assisted pilot suicides in the German database during the two years after or five years prior to the Germanwings crash. The relative aircraft-assisted pilot suicide risk for the U.S. was 1.4 (95% CI 0.3–4.2) which was not statistically significant. Six of the pilots who died by suicide had told someone of their suicidal intentions. We consider changes in the rate to be within a normal variation. Responsible media coverage of aircraft incidents is important due to the large amount of publicity that these events attract. MDPI 2018-03-11 2018-03 /pmc/articles/PMC5877036/ /pubmed/29534475 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15030491 Text en © 2018 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Laukkala, Tanja
Vuorio, Alpo
Bor, Robert
Budowle, Bruce
Navathe, Pooshan
Pukkala, Eero
Sajantila, Antti
Copycats in Pilot Aircraft-Assisted Suicides after the Germanwings Incident
title Copycats in Pilot Aircraft-Assisted Suicides after the Germanwings Incident
title_full Copycats in Pilot Aircraft-Assisted Suicides after the Germanwings Incident
title_fullStr Copycats in Pilot Aircraft-Assisted Suicides after the Germanwings Incident
title_full_unstemmed Copycats in Pilot Aircraft-Assisted Suicides after the Germanwings Incident
title_short Copycats in Pilot Aircraft-Assisted Suicides after the Germanwings Incident
title_sort copycats in pilot aircraft-assisted suicides after the germanwings incident
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5877036/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29534475
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15030491
work_keys_str_mv AT laukkalatanja copycatsinpilotaircraftassistedsuicidesafterthegermanwingsincident
AT vuorioalpo copycatsinpilotaircraftassistedsuicidesafterthegermanwingsincident
AT borrobert copycatsinpilotaircraftassistedsuicidesafterthegermanwingsincident
AT budowlebruce copycatsinpilotaircraftassistedsuicidesafterthegermanwingsincident
AT navathepooshan copycatsinpilotaircraftassistedsuicidesafterthegermanwingsincident
AT pukkalaeero copycatsinpilotaircraftassistedsuicidesafterthegermanwingsincident
AT sajantilaantti copycatsinpilotaircraftassistedsuicidesafterthegermanwingsincident