History of air crash probes shows investigators disagree on pilot complicity
In three of the four cases, the length of investigations averaged two-three years and in two cases the deceased pilots were proven to have a history of clinically-diagnosed depression. Three of these cases involved one of the pilots having control of the aircraft and alone in the cockpit and the co-pilots for brief periods being unable to access controls.
'Psychological autopsy' – a form of forensic investigation into the deceased's mental state – was a key factor in determining pilot intentionality and even then 'there could rarely be certainty about suicidal intent being the sole cause of an accident,' Alpo Vuorio, psychologist and an academic researcher of aviation disasters, told The Hindu in an email.
Questions on the mental health of the pilot have surfaced around the ongoing investigation into the AI-171 flight from Ahmedabad to Gatwick on June 12 where 241 passengers, including crew, died and another 19 were killed on the ground. Though only a preliminary report is out, speculation is rife that the captain may have sabotaged the plane's fuel intake during take-off. Pilot associations in India have vociferously objected to such a characterisation with Ministers advocating restraint until the investigation has concluded.
Since 1994, there have been only six confirmed instances globally involving commercial planes where investigating agencies attributed the accident to actions by the pilot. Within these, only four have published reports and analyses in academic literature. Overall, such crashes are a rarity.
Based on flying-accident reports in the United States from 1993–2021, 24 out of 7,244 – or 0.33% — fatal accident cases in general aviation were formally attributed to be 'aircraft-assisted suicides' (0.33%). The vast majority of these accidents involved pilots flying their own planes or those of very small operators where planes usually didn't carry FDR (Flight Data Recorder) and CVR (Cockpit Voice Recorder), said a 2023 study led by Dr. Vuorio in the journal Aviation Space Environment.
The first of these was Silk Air Flight 185 (Jakarta- Singapore) in December 1999, which killed 97 passengers and seven crew members. A Boeing 737, it crashed into the Musi River, Sumatra, after nose-diving from an altitude of nearly 35,000 feet. Its CVR and FDR stopped recording following which the plane rapidly descended and crashed within a minute.
Following a nearly three-year investigation, the National Transportation Safety Corporation (NTSC) – the Indonesian equivalent of India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau that is investigating the Ahmedabad crash – concluded that the 'technical investigation has yielded no evidence to explain the cause of the accident.' The U.S. agency NTSB dissented. 'There was no evidence of a mechanical failure of any of the flight control systems or related components that would have been causal or contributing to the accident and the accident can be explained by intentional pilot action,' said the 140-page report. Along with a technical analysis, this report also placed on record that the captain, who had commandeered the plane, was reportedly battling a financial crisis, though it was also stated that he displayed no aberrant behaviour prior to the flight.
The second accident occurred on October 31, 1999, when Egypt Air flight 990, a Boeing 767, crashed into the Atlantic Ocean, south of Massachusetts. About 29 minutes after take-off, the FDR showed that the First Officer disconnected the autopilot. He was alone in the cockpit with the Captain having left for a bathroom break. The FDR recorded an abrupt nose-down elevator movement — the instrument meant to control the plane's pitch (up and down movement) — and the aircraft began a precipitous descent. The CVR recorded that the First Officer, a native Arabic speaker, said several times, 'I rely on God'.
After that, the FDR recorded additional unexpected movement of the aileron – a device on the tail to control a plane's rolling movements. A master warning alarm began to sound, and the Captain, who was returning from the toilet, was wondering aloud what was happening. The aircraft crashed about two minutes later. The NTSB determined that the 'probable cause was... as a result of the First Officer's flight control inputs. The reason for the First Officer's actions was not determined'. However media coverage speculated on a wide variety of causes ranging from the first officer's 'religious extremism' to alleged disputes with colleagues. The Egyptian Civil Aviation Authority (ECAA), while first collaborating with the NTSB on the investigation, concluded that 'the officer did not deliberately dive the air-plane into the ocean' and that mechanical failure was 'a plausible and likely cause of the accident'.
The third accident, on November 2013, involved the Mozambique Airlines Flight 470 from Maputo, Mozambique to Luanda, Angola. The Embraer E190 twinjet crashed into the Bwabwata National Park, Namibia, killing all 27 passengers and six crew members. About an hour and 50 minutes into the flight, the First Officer stated that he had to go to the toilet. The Captain handled the auto flight system leading to a 'sustained descent and collision with the terrain', says the investigation report. While here the investigation agencies of the Mozambique and Namibia attributed the plane's 'unnatural' descent to the pilot, the Mozambique Association of Air Operators disputed the finding. The investigation lasted three years.
The fourth analysed accident — the only one where there was rapid, unanimous consensus that a pilot, with a history of psychiatric problems, intentionally crashed the plane — occurred on March 24, 2015 with Germanwings flight 4U9525 from Barcelona, Spain to Dusseldorf, Germany. There were 150 casualties following the crash of the Airbus A-320.
According to the investigation report, in the cruise phase of the flight, the First Officer waited until he was alone in the cockpit. Then he modified the autopilot settings causing the aeroplane to descend and, kept the cockpit door locked. The First Officer did not respond to the calls from air traffic controllers, and the aircraft fell into the French Alps. One of the quickest investigations, which officially concluded within a year, the French Bureau of Enquiry and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety (BEA) and its German counterpart, the Federal Bureau of Aircraft Accident Investigation (BFU) concluded that the pilot had deliberately crashed the plane as a 'murder-suicide'. German investigators found a doctor's note in the pilot's apartment, three days following the crash, indicating that he was 'unfit to fly'. They also reported that he suffered from 'psychiatric illnesses' and a post-mortem analysis of his body found the presence of a combination of antidepressants, escitalopram and mirtazapine and a sleep medication, zopiclone. The investigation report mentioned that he had researched online ways to 'commit suicide' before commandeering the flight.
'The links between pilot suicides and social change, such as unemployment threats and financial recession, have not been studied, given the low numbers of pilot suicide cases as well as the unpredictability and infrequency of recession, coupled with methodological challenges such as suitable comparison groups and the absence of baseline measures,' said Dr. Vuorio. 'However, it has been found that significant sudden changes in society may increase the number of pilot suicides. For example, after the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York, the risk of suicide by aircraft in the year following the attack was almost four times the average risk in the five years prior to the terrorist attack. Significant, sudden and adverse changes in society can have an impact on pilot mental health,' he added.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Indian Express
11 minutes ago
- Indian Express
Are AI tools making you forgetful and dull? Here's how to prevent a brain burnout
Dr Prabash Prabhakaran The other day, a 26-year-old software engineer from Bengaluru came to see me because she was worried about something I'm hearing more and more, 'I feel mentally lazy,' she said. She didn't have a memory problem. No headaches either. There were no neurological warning signs. However, something had changed. Once shrewd and confident, she now relied on AI apps and tools for everything, from brainstorming meeting ideas to client emails and code snippets. She became aware over the months that she was losing her ability to remember things. She would repeatedly ask AI the same questions, lose track of technical concepts and forget project details. What was causing her the most distress? She declared, 'I've lost my curiosity. Besides, why think when I can get it done by someone else?' Her situation exemplified cognitive disuse, which is the process by which the brain dulls like a muscle left unworked. The mental cost of continuously outsourcing our ability to think, remember and make decisions is known as cognitive debt. It's like skipping out on exercise; if you don't go to the gym long enough, your muscles will weaken. Similarly, when we stop pushing our brains, they become less resilient. This change takes time to manifest. It's not about getting lost on the way home or forgetting your birthday. It begins subtly: You become distracted without reminders or prompts, lose your train of thought in the middle of a sentence or find it difficult to remember something you used to know by heart. I still recall a specific patient saying, 'I no longer trust my brain.' What causes this dullness? Our brains are made to think deeply, remember things and solve problems. The neural pathways supporting these abilities are strengthened each time they are stretched. The great thing about neuroplasticity is that it gets stronger the more you use it. However, those circuits aren't triggered when AI takes over the mental labour. This can eventually impair mental acuity, concentration and independent thought, particularly in young adults whose brains are still developing. Therefore, the true question is not whether AI causes forgetfulness but rather whether we are utilising it in ways that contradict or replace our own thought processes. The silent burnout Physical exhaustion is not the same as cognitive fatigue. It's a silent feeling of dreariness, like fog. A few indicators are requiring reminders to complete basic tasks, ignoring what you just read, mentally 'flat' even after taking a break or losing interest in critical thinking or problem-solving. Classrooms, workplaces and homes are all experiencing what Riya did. Our active thinking starts to wane as we consume passively. How then does one strengthen one's mind? AI shouldn't replace thought, just as calculators didn't replace math. Instead of being a crutch, it ought to be a tool. The following are a few easy yet effective methods to improve your cognitive fitness: 1. Intentional recall: Before searching, take a moment to try and recall. 2. Active participation: Don't replace your ideas with AI; use it to test them. 3. Mental exercises: Include deep reading, crossword puzzles and logic games. 4. Tech sabbaticals: Unplug frequently to allow your thoughts to roam. Not only do we lose speed when we allow a machine to think for us, we also lose sharpness. Let's remember to think independently in a world full of intelligent tools and instant prompts. The human brain, which was designed to be used, continues to be our most potent processor. (The author is senior consultant and Director of Neurology, SIMS Hospital, Chennai)


The Hindu
13 hours ago
- The Hindu
Watch: Govt's sugar and oil board mandate, patient-friendly health tech, brain vs mind and liver health
Watch: Govt's sugar and oil board mandate, patient-friendly health tech, brain vs mind and liver health | Health Wrap by The Hindu In this episode of The Health Wrap by The Hindu, Senior journalists Ramya Kannan and Zubeda Hamid unpack the Health Ministry's new directive on displaying sugar and oil content in public institutions, explore patient-first innovations like IIT Madras's lightweight wheelchair and a redesigned speculum, and discuss the enduring puzzle of brain vs mind. Dr. Vivek Shanmugam joins for a detailed conversation on liver health --why it matters, what to watch for and how to protect it. Bindu Shajan Perappadan , Senior Assistant Editor at The Hindu, joins in our Reporter on Call segment. Don't miss the fun fact at the end!


India Today
19 hours ago
- India Today
How artificial intelligence is making dentistry smarter
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is beginning to find its utility in dental clinics across India in practical, task-specific ways. AI works quietly in the background, helping dentists focus on what matters most: accurate diagnosis and meaningful conversations with SUBTLE DIAGNOSTIC CLUESRadiographs and scans are commonly utilised by dentists to make decisions, particularly in cases where symptoms are imprecise or inconsistent. Although human expertise is still crucial, it has limitations, particularly when handling early disease symptoms or fatigue from extended spoke with Dr Sanjeet Shanker, a prosthodontist and founder and CEO of to get more insights. In order to find patterns that point to issues like early periapical lesions, slight bone loss, or developing cavities, AI-assisted imaging tools scan thousands of radiographs. The clinician's judgment is not claimed to be in control of these tools. Rather, they serve as an extra pair of eyes, pointing out areas that need more a routine examination, a tiny dark patch on a molar root might not be noticeable. But when highlighted by an AI system, it becomes a point of discussion, leading to follow-up scans, confirmed diagnoses, and timely PATIENTS UNDERSTAND THEIR DIAGNOSISAI tools also change how patients interact with their care. One of the recurring challenges in dentistry is bridging the gap between clinical language and patient understanding. Telling a patient about a possible lesion can be difficult when they cannot see or feel anything when AI highlights a concern on an image, and that image is shown during the consultation, it shifts the dynamic. Patients are now being shown. This level of transparency encourages them to ask questions, understand the issue better, and proceed with greater that have adopted AI diagnostic tools report better treatment plan acceptance and more word-of-mouth referrals. For instance, data from dental practices using AI has indicated positive outcomes. Treatment plan acceptance rose by 31%, patient referrals grew by 24%, and satisfaction levels reached new highs, according to EpikDoc performance ROUTINE WORKAI is also easing the strain of routine documentation. Voice-enabled tools now assist with dental charting, recognising clinical terms, and converting speech to structured notes. For dentists, this means less time spent at the screen and more time with the orthodontic settings, AI systems can simulate tooth movement, helping plan treatment phases more effectively. This helps clinicians explain the journey ahead in clearer terms and allows patients to visualise their progress, especially valuable for long-term cases involving braces or of these tools replaces the need for clinical oversight. What they do is take over the repetitive parts, scanning images, organising notes, suggesting next steps, so the dentist can stay focused on decision-making and patient SIGNALS IN ORAL RISKSadvertisementAI's potential is being explored in areas like oral cancer detection, where early signs may appear in imaging or histopathology slides. India continues to face a high burden of tobacco-related lesions, and faster identification of risk markers could play a role in addressing delays in these applications are still in research or pilot stages, they point to a future where AI could assist in high-stakes areas without overwhelming the existing system. For now, its role remains grounded: support, not AND LEARNING OVER TIMEWhat makes AI different from conventional software is that it learns. As more scans are added, and more outcomes are fed back into the system, the tool becomes sharper. This means that clinics using AI today are contributing to a system that improves over adoption still varies. Larger clinics in metro areas are more likely to integrate AI, thanks to better infrastructure and patient volume. Smaller practices are watching with interest, and as costs come down and systems become more modular, wider adoption is CLARITY IN TREATMENT CONVERSATIONSDental care often involves choices, whether to observe, intervene, restore, or refer. These choices become easier when patients are presented with clear, visual evidence backed by makes this possible. It does not make the final call, but it helps structure the conversation. When a patient sees what the dentist sees, the conversation becomes simpler, the questions become more focused, and the decisions become GOOD DENTISTRY EASIER TO DELIVERTechnology in dentistry works best when it does not demand attention. The goal is to assist, to make diagnosis more accurate, explanations clearer, and workflow more manageable.- Ends