Mehiläinen Kielotie Health Centre, Vantaa 01300, Finland.
Department of Forensic Medicine, University of Helsinki and Mehiläinen Airport Health Centre, Lentäjäntie 1 E, 01530 Vantaa, Finland.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2018 Mar 11;15(3):491. doi: 10.3390/ijerph15030491.
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.
飞机辅助飞行员自杀是一种罕见但严重的现象。本研究旨在评估美国和德国在德国之翼 2015 年法国阿尔卑斯山事件后飞行员飞机辅助自杀风险的变化，即模仿效应。在美国国家运输安全委员会（NTSB）事故调查数据库和德国联邦飞行事故调查局（BFU）调查报告数据库中，搜索了德国之翼 2015 年故意坠机进入法国阿尔卑斯山五年前和两年后的飞机辅助飞行员自杀事件。计算了飞机辅助飞行员自杀的相对风险（RR）。在事件发生两年后，NTSB 数据库中 454 起致命事故中有 3 起（0.66%）是飞机辅助自杀，而在此前五年中，1292 起致命事故中有 6 起（0.46%）。在德国之翼坠机前后的两年内，德国数据库中没有发生飞机辅助飞行员自杀事件。美国的飞机辅助飞行员自杀相对风险为 1.4（95%CI 0.3-4.2），无统计学意义。六名自杀飞行员曾向他人透露过自杀意图。我们认为，这一比率的变化属于正常波动。由于这些事件吸引了大量的宣传，因此对飞机事故进行负责任的媒体报道非常重要。
