The Psychological Impact of COVID-19 on Pilot Mental Health and Wellbeing – Quarantine Experiences

Introduction. The COVID-19 pandemic proved to be a global challenge and the worst crisis in the aviation industry's history. Pilots were exposed to particularly high psychological stressors due to new preventative measures, stringent quarantine experiences, loss of income and unemployment. Research question. The purpose of the study was to assess the immediate psychological impact of COVID-19 on pilot mental health and wellbeing - with specific reference to quarantine experiences. Method. Research was conducted over the period May-July 2020 and data was gathered via a snowball sampling as well as a voluntary response technique. A total of N=1324 pilots completed a bespoke online biodata survey, the General Anxiety Disorder-7 Questionnaire (GAD-7) and the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9). Results. The analysis revealed that there was no statistically significant relationship between quarantine context or quarantine duration and pilot mental health. However, a fairly high percentage of respondents reported moderate depression (10,9%) and moderately severe to severe depression (8,8%) when quarantine extended to 10 weeks and beyond. When considering anxiety, 28,3% of the respondents reported moderate symptoms and 12,5% reported severe symptoms of anxiety with extended quarantine. Discussion. The psychological impact of COVID-19 causes serious concerns from a risk management perspective. Screening processes to identify or mitigate risks associated with the psychological impact should be considered. Conclusion. The findings of the study may be useful to formulate interventions that can minimise psychological stressors and improve mental health and resilience as pilots return to normal operations. It can also serve as historical reference or baseline for evaluating prevention, control and treatment programmes in the coming years.