This Article  • Full text PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citing articles on HighWire  • Citing articles on Web of Science (6)  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in JAMA  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

JAMA. 1984;252(14):1835-1836.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

Toxicologic test results indicate that at least one in ten pilots who were killed in airplane crashes during a recent seven-year period in the United States (under circumstances where adequate tissue samples were available and appropriate postmortem tests completed) had been drinking alcohol.

The National Transportation Safety Board, Washington, DC, which compiled the data, says that general (noncommercial, the so-called "private") aviation pilots, commuter airline cockpit crews, and air taxi fliers are included, but not military flying officers.

As for the major airlines (usually flying airplanes of 5,625 kg—12,500 lb—or greater basic weight), the board says, "no [fatally injured] pilot of a US certified air carrier... [has been] found to have a positive alcohol test [result] since at least 1964." (However, a cargo airplane of a Japanese airline did crash in Anchorage, Alaska, in 1977, killing the five air crew members aboard. Toxicologic test results indicated that the pilot had . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?