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Aircraft-Assisted Pilot Suicides in the United States, 2003-2012

Russell J Lewis, Estrella M Forster and James E Whinnery

This paper is a 10-year review (2003-2012) of aircraft-assisted pilot suicides and is a follow up to our previous 1993-2002 review. From 2003-2012, there were 2,758 fatal aviation accidents; 8 were aircraft-assisted suicides (intentional crashing of aircraft). This is half of what we found in our previous 10-year review. All pilots involved in these suicides were male (median age 46, range 21-68). The pilot was the sole occupant in 7 of the 8 suicide aircraft. Ethanol and/or drugs were detected in 6 of the 7 pilots tested. Based on the limited accidents conclusively attributed to suicide, death by the intentional crashing of an aircraft is an infrequent and uncommon event and has declined compared to the previous 20 years.