I come from China and I am a high school student.

I’m an avid reader of your book 《ask the pilot》and deeply appreciate your insights into aviation. I’d like to ask two questions related to pilot mental health:

1. Mental Health in Aviation: How do pilots typically cope with stress and psychological pressures? Are there systemic gaps in mental health support for crews?
2. MU5735 Incident: As an expert, what are your thoughts on the role of pilot mental health in this tragedy (if any)? How can the industry improve? Or what are your views and opinions on the accident?

I understand this is a sensitive topic, but your perspective would help clarify public concerns. Thank you for your time!

Without further complications, it would’ve been fairly straightforward to restart the engines. They had plenty of time and altitude.

In GA training, instructors are fond of closing the throttle and asking the student “where ya gonna land?” This seems like a different order of problem, given how complicated it is to start get engines.

I’ve also read that, in people with underlying mental illness, shrooms can trigger a psychotic break a day or two later — and a psychotic break seems to me to match the way Emerson described what he was experiencing.

It’s a very good thing that he had the presence of mind, once the pilots got him out of the flight deck, to go to a flight attendant and ask to be zip-tied.

So I wouldn’t be inclined to convict Emerson of attempted murder. Interfering with a flight crew and reckless endangerment, yes, but it seems clear that he had no intent to kill.

Also from what I read, he seems to have had an exemplary career before this. If that’s the case, obviously he shouldn’t, and almost certainly won’t, be allowed to fly again, but I hope that an airline could see fit to hire him for its training staff.

After my treatment they did not fire me, but they stuck me in the hinterlands, where I still excelled. When the next economic downturn came, they closed the hinterlands offices.

A few years later I ran into my old boss at a trade show and he was truly shocked that I was still alive. This was 30 years ago.

Me, I had a mild episode of depression two years ago. I’m currently on maintenance medication, a light anti-depressant. Entering PPL(A) training, my class 2 med ended with a restriction that prevents me from taking on passengers, that is friends, even my wife. The drug that is allowed under FAA rules, is potentially allowed under EASA rules, if your EU home country decides so. Unfortunately, in Lubitz’ home country, guess whether there is enough political will to allow this… 🙁

As with alcohol abuse, it clearly isn’t in the aviation industry’s interest to drive mental illness underground. The less punitive the approach, the more willing people will be to grasp a helping hand.

My wife has been schizophrenic for decades. The stigma, & fear, is completely unwarranted.
And I’ve been a Dodgers fan ever since I learned they’ve been giving Andrew Toles a no-pay contract for years now only so he can benefit from the team’s health insurance.