Air India Crash Exposes Deadly Risk of Pilots on Psychiatric Drugs
Republished with permission from AbleChild
While Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, reassures the flying public that air travel is now so safe that there is no longer a need to remove shoes prior to boarding aircraft, the tragic June 12, 2025, Air India crash raises larger concerns for the flying public that have nothing to do with the size of liquid containers but certainly something Secretary Noem and her colleagues at the FAA and the NTSB may want to address.
According to news reports about the Air India crash, investigators are focusing attention on the data being reveal through the aircraft’s black box recordings and, specifically, what the pilot had to say prior to the deadly crash.
Apparently, investigators are concerned that the pilot, Sumeet Sabharwal, seconds into the flight, turned off the fuel supply to the engines, causing the Boeing Dreamliner to slam into the ground killing all but one of the 230 passengers and all 12 of the crew. Investigators now are interested in the pilot’s medical records, trying to come up with a motive. What would have caused pilot, Sabharwal, to purposefully crash the aircraft?
Well, as it turns out, Sabharwal, reportedly had depression and some mental health issues, despite both flight pilots having, within the past two years, passed the Class 1 medical exam, which takes into consideration the pilot’s psychological capabilities. Nevertheless, it is certain that both fuel switches had to have been pulled upward to unlock them. This action was not by accident…it had to be deliberate.
So, understanding that the fatal action was deliberate one now must consider the bigger question…how many commercial pilots, transporting millions of travelers around world, have been diagnosed with a mental disorder and are being treated with mind-altering drugs?
Remember it has been ten years since the deadly 2015 Germanwings flight that was deliberately crashed into the French Alps by pilot Andrea Lubitz. Lubitz killed all 150 on board by diving the aircraft into a mountain. Investigators reportedly found a “number of medications for the treatment of psychological illness” during a search of the pilot’s home. It also was reported that Lubitz had been treated by several neurologists and psychiatrists.
That was ten years ago. Fast forward to the January 29, 2025, midair collision between American Airlines passenger jet and a US Army Black Hawk helicopter over the Potomac River. While investigators have not released the complete investigation or autopsy information, it has been reported that “there is no indication that Capt. Rebecca Lobach was suffering from health issues at the time or that a medical event affected her during those final moments…” That’s important information, but it does not explain whether the military captain had been diagnosed with any mental disorder or was being medicated with any mind-altering drugs.
It should be of interest to the flying public that pilots, and commercial airlines, do not have to disclose which of its pilots are being medicated for a mental disorder. Nope. In fact, just trying to find specific data about how many pilots are currently taking mind-alerting drugs as treatment for a mental disorder is nearly impossible.
The fact that the public is unaware of whether the pilot (or all the flight’s crew) is being treated for a mental disorder does not bode well for flight safety nor informed consent for that matter. Here’s the point. Shouldn’t a paying passenger have the right to know if the people flying the aircraft have their minds chemically altered in order to function appropriately?
AbleChild recently learned that not only are commercial aircraft pilots and Air Traffic Control personnel allowed to take serious psychiatric drugs as treatment for mental disorders, but the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has expanded the number of psychiatric drugs that pilots and controllers may take and still fly the friendly skies.
In a May 29, 2025, update to the Guide for Aviation Medical Examiners (AME’s), acceptable anxiety diagnoses include generalized anxiety disorder, situational anxiety disorder, social anxiety disorder, unspecified anxiety, postpartum depression, situational depression, situational anxiety and depression, unspecified depression, obsessive compulsive disorder, and PTSD.
The FAA also explains that “a pilot can have up to two listed conditions treated with any combination of psychotherapy; medication; a single metal health medication last taken, prescribed or recommended two or more years ago.”
The chemical treatments the FAA allows pilots to take while flying include Prozac, Zoloft, Celexa, Lexapro, Wellbutrin, Cymbalta, Effexor and Pristiq. Of course, AbleChild would be remis without reminding the public that neither the pharmaceutical companies that produce the drugs nor the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that approves the drugs for use, know how any of these drugs “work” in the brain to “treat” any mental disorder.
And, not to belabor the point, let’s just consider for a moment the possible adverse events associated with just one of the FAA approved psychiatric drugs, Zoloft. Possible side effects associated with Zoloft (Sertraline) include aggressive reaction, confusion, drowsiness, inability to sit still, mood or behavior changes, seizures, agitation, anxiety, aggravated depression, depersonalization, mania, paranoia, suicidal ideation, suicide attempt, abnormal thinking, hallucination, psychotic disorder and psychosis. If even one of these adverse events occurs during flight, this does not bode well for the safety of the flying public. It’s also of interest – even weird – that pilots are not allowed to use psychiatric drugs that “treat” ADHD. Antidepressants are fine, but don’t use ADHD drugs!
Clearly, the possible adverse events associated with just one of the drugs allowed by the FAA would lead one to wonder if the federal agency is appropriately tracking drug use among pilots and drug use associated with airline accidents. The last publicly available toxicology report only covered data up to 2017. With increased use of mind-altering drugs among pilots, air traffic controllers and aircraft crew, it seems imperative that the Secretary of Homeland Security may want to work with her colleagues at the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) to not only collect yearly data but make it publicly available.
AbleChild recently introduced legislation that became law in Tennessee that requires toxicology tests be conducted on all perpetrators of shootings involving four or more victims and results of those data be made public. The FAA may want to consider a similar approach involving the number of pilots and air traffic controllers using psychiatric drugs to function.
Afterall, there are ample data revealing air accidents that have occurred at the hands of pilots being “treated” for mental illness. If the FAA is comfortable with pilots suffering from mental disorders flying, then there should be no problem allowing the public to know how many pilots are being treated and how many air accidents are occurring at the hands of those pilots being treated.
The mission of the FAA is “to provide the safest, most efficient aerospace system in the world.” One might argue that allowing pilots to fly commercial aircraft while being medicated with serious psychiatric mind-altering drugs is not in the public’s best interest. However, providing the necessary crash data on a yearly basis would go a long way to reassuring the public that air travel is safe, despite the pilot’s altered mind .
AbleChild is a 501(3) C nonprofit organization has recently co-written landmark legislation in Tennessee, setting a national precedent for transparency and accountability in the intersection of mental health, pharmaceutical practices, and public safety.
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The post ABLECHILD: 30,000 Feet Mental Health Meltdown? Air India Crash Exposes Deadly Risk of Pilots on Psychiatric Drugs first appeared on Joe Hoft.
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