should they ban the metanly ill from flying?

after the tragic stuff the happened this week i wonder. i know me for one i cant fly .there is no way i could deal with them people touching me even when im well i dont like people touching me.and when im not well .things would be worst.so i think people such as my self shouldnt be alowed to fly

But... What are they going to do for pilots?????

-Bill

i saw on news some pilots where operating a plane while drinking.scary stuff

In the old days (1960's-70's), I had a friend who was an engineer, and later a pilot when they got rid of flight engineers, who said that there were pilots that were such alcoholics that they had to drink before a flight or they could get the DT's (yes this was a major passenger carrier)...

-Bill

man thats scary hopefully it aint that way no more.belive it or not i flew a plane once well i didnt take off or land but took over controls while in the air was small plane like 2 seater i hardly recall it

I assume intoxicated pilots while on duty must be of a very small percentage. I have a passing acquaintance with a pilot for a major carrier. If he is flying the next day, he won't touch a drop the night before. Should I run into him again I'll have to ask him if pilots are ever checked for that sort of thing.

By mentally ill you can even mean depression, Aspergers Syndrome, or anything out there in the book...

Some people might consider flashaholism a mental illness, which would mean none of us would be able to fly...

Anyone else heard about the incident on Northwest Airlines yesterday? On a flight from Los Angeles to Honolulu, a male passenger began acting strangely, not listening to the flights attendants, wielding a phone cord like a weapon, and threatening to kill a baby that was nearby. Then about ten minutes prior to landing, he charged up the aisle towards the cockpit. There were NO air marshals on board, but several of the passengers tackled the guy, who was then restrained until landing. What is this world coming to???

Regarding banning the mentally ill, I don't think that's going to happen. Perhaps the most that can be done is for airport personnel to watch for unusual behavior, and determine whether someone can fly or not.

Ever watch the show "Airline" on A&E TV? It shows actual Southwest Airlines activity at several different airports--you get to see all kinds of people. I don't know if it applies to all airlines, but Southwest agents apparently have the authority to deny boarding to any passenger--usually because they appear drunk.

I had what I suppose you could call a mentally ill flying experience although it was all internal and transparent to the passengers around me. I suffer from panic attacks, thankfully not as bad as in the past. I was flying in a DC-10 at night in the pitch black. I was in the middle seat of the five seat row. I could see nothing outside. All I could hear was the drone of the plane, I had no semblance of control or orientation. I had one major panic attack although thankfully I kept it to myself. I can see why some people won't fly, once you're in the air everything is completely out of your control and you can't "get off".

There ain't NO WAY the ACLU would let that happen. In todays world they'd get rid of the officers first!

i hope not playboy i mean i think they should keep oficers that guy did a great job ,just was sad and got me to think

I'm sorry Raggie! I don't mean to imply that I think the officers did anything wrong. I think they did the very best they could with what they knew at the time.

It's just that there are so many people that blame them and PLENTY of lawyers to take the case!!!

It was a sad incident for sure... but if you don't do what an officer tells you to as soon as possible, bad things happen....

We had an incident in Richmond where someone claimed to have a bomb or soemthing and the plane turned right around.

Ive watch that A&E show and from what Ive seen I wont be flying. I had bad enough time with amtrk with my wheelchair, trains arriving 7 hours late, etc. Next time grey hound.

I agree with the marshals. I just wonder where are the miracle nonlethal weapons. you think a preassurized plane would be the best place to use something like that with all the passengers and bystanders onboard and in the terminal.

No drinking within 30 feet of the plane and no smoking for eight hours before the flight! All us good pilots know that!:devil:

It's such a hassle, you have to be crazy to fly these days.

Raggie's question is actually a very good one. That poor guy appears to have been BP, which often has additional characteristics. The strain of a long flight probably brought on his very real and desperate need to exit the plane. Obviously, he accomplished that goal but with the wrong ending.

Now - exactly why couldn't he have been shot in the leg ? Security is so tight at airports - hard to believe that you could really smuggle something significant on board, and if you had, why the heck would you wait until you are on the ground running around with it to announce it ?

As far as commercial pilots and professionalism - these guys are second to none in my book. I have a lot of miles on my belt, and they are a class act.

There is an assumption in this forum that the guy who was killed said he had a bomb. From what I've read, none of the passengers heard that. Do you guys know something I don't?

suicide bombers are not exactly normal either, think they should be banned from flying in the u.s.? let them fly in their country of origin! .
i'm sure there are more virgins in their land than here anyway!

Hear hear. Another politically incorrect outburst from you and you'll be banned from the internet.

Besides don't you think flying is now more interesting? Remember how bored you were back in the days when you didn't have to take your shoes off?

The U.S. was almost civilized back then. What a drag.

It certainly might be more difficult for a person with a mental illness, especially one off his medication, to behave appropriately on an airplane. All the rest of us know that planes are cramped, noisy, claustrophobic places and that we might get stuck there for hours on the tarmac, or in a holding pattern in the air. Storms can make the experience even worse. The quality of the flight from a sanity standpoint is completely unpredictable for even the most normal and healthy person. I've gotten off a couple of flights so shaken that I had do just sit down and just breathe for a while.

Flying is not easy to do for us even at the best of our mental health and during the best of being ontime and not storming outside.

I can totally understand how someone on the edge when they got on the plane could be very far over the edge getting off at the other side.

The problem with flying is like so many things in our lives that are hard or dangerous. we take it for granted and treat it as a normal everyday thing. Therefore it's hard for someone who can't really handle it to justify their fear and find a different route or just choose not to do it. And for someone who really does have a problem, do they really know that they might be putting themselves into a position where they will loose their control?

There is no easy solution for it, I dont think the airlines can ban anyone who is "mentally ill" cause what does that mean really? Do I need a note from my doc to fly?

Ultimately it's our own responsibility, and the responsibility of those with us to help us to know and not to push us into situations where they should know we wont cope. But again, if you're truly ill then you might not be up to making that decision.

Difficult all around really.