Joint Committee of Aviation Pathology: X. Previous disease in aircrew killed in flying accidents.

This review article discusses the role of previous disease in military, private, and commercial pilots under the headings of occurrence, accident causation, and accident prevention. The importance of minor disease in military flying is stressed as are psychiatric disorders and alcoholism in general aviation. Disease of the coronary arteries is considered with special reference to commercial operations, where the importance of double crewing is emphasized. While symptomatic disease must always be significant, some of the problems associated with increasingly severe selection on the basis of asymptomatic disease are discussed.