I have a friend that is a pilot. He said the quickest way to be out of a job and never be hired as a pilot again is to remotely admit you might have a mental health issue. And not in the “I hear voices” severity, more like “Hey my job is stressful, I’m away from home all the time while working, and I’m going through a divorce. Maybe talking to a professional will help me cope” kind of thing.

Are these actual “major health issues”, or is this standard level anxiety/depression? The article doesn’t really clarify, and I get the feeling that’s on purpose.

“There are people out there who I think are trying to play both sides of the game,” said Jerome Limoge, an aviation medical examiner in Colorado Springs who gives physicals to hundreds of pilots a year. “They’re being encouraged by VA to claim everything. Some of it is almost stolen valor.”

If they get put through the meat grinder that is the US military complex, maybe they should be able to claim the benefits they deserve. This is just veteran-flavored welfare queen rhetoric. And it’s not like VA benefits are worth shit anyway…

There’s a line to walk between preventing tragedies like Germanwings Flight 9525 and putting undue stress on pilots. This both puts undue stress on pilots and ironically makes a similar disaster more likely. Bringing the hammer down on people with mental health problems doesn’t make them go away, it just makes people go undiagnosed and untreated.

Yeah, because they don’t want to starve. Welcome to capitalism.