lying in the grass. He was very dead with broken twisted limbs and bloody lacerations on his body. But he was about the same age as my son, and I clearly see his body as I write this and will until the day I die. I remember that I did not want to talk about it with anyone, not even my wife. I thought I could have just as easily have made that mistake. I seriously considered getting out of aviation at that time, but was able to tell myself that the memory of that child will serve to remind me never to make a mistake. I was able to use his memory to guide me through life and hopefully be a better person for the experience. People with PTSD will have experienced something dramatic in their life that they were not prepared for. They will live with that experience for the rest of their life, but they can learn to deal with it and accept that there is nothing they can do to change it. If they are able to take the experience and use it to make them a better person, the 8-track can be made to stop for ever longer periods of time. Go to YouTube and type in “Wrong Side Of Heaven”
by the band Five Finger Death Punch and you will see some statistics from the veterans who have experienced the horrors of war. Way more have died from PTSD and are still dying at the rate of about one an hour than died in the war. But you don’t have to experience war to get PTSD, and it doesn’t need to end in suicide. I just finished reading the story of the Qantas pilot of
an A330 that, as he put it, “the computers went berserk.” The aircraft suddenly went into a violent dive throwing anyone not strapped in into the ceiling breaking through and on coming out leaving hair and scalp behind. The pilots became “ineffective observers” and the computers had complete control. This scenario was repeated several times, but they managed to land it between episodes at a small airport. As he walked through the aircraft, the scene of blood and injured crew and passengers was imprinted in his mind. He received professional help but he described the stages of his PTSD as follows: 1) Mood swings, 2) Irritability, 3) Crying spells, 4) Early morning waking 2am-3am, 5) Appetite disturbance, 6) No motivation, 7) Poor concentration/memory, 8) Low libido, 9) Anxiety, 10) Self harm. When he reached the self-harm thoughts he realized that PTSD doesn’t just go away, and gave up the thought of flying again. He felt that by leaving that behind he hoped to be able to move
forward. I pray that he can and does. Somehow the person needs to talk about it, and if it
is to you just be a good listener. The person will need to deal with it in their own way, but they must feel valued and have a reason to live. I’ve always felt that for some, a puppy that will depend on him/her to survive and in turn give him/her unconditional love can make the difference. There’s a few in the past that I wish I could have given
a puppy to.
No matter what caused the PTSD, professional help has to be at the top of the list to assist the person to deal with it. Understanding from you that the person has a demon that he just can’t seem to shake can help. This has been a bit difficult to write as I’m not a psychologist and certainly don’t have all the answers. We humans will make errors in our lives and we will need to deal with them in our own ways, perhaps with a little help from our friends. Try to be that friend. .
Gordon Dupont worked as a special programs coordinator for Transport Canada from March 1993 to August 1999. He was responsible for coordinating with the aviation industry in the development of programs that would serve to
reduce maintenance error. He assisted in the development of Human Performance in Maintenance (HPIM) Parts 1 and 2. The “Dirty Dozen” maintenance Safety posters were an outcome of HPIM Part 1.
Prior to working for Transport, Dupont worked for seven years as a technical investigator for the Canadian Aviation Safety Board (later to become the Canadian Transportation Safety Board). He saw firsthand the tragic results of maintenance and human error.
Dupont has been an aircraft maintenance engineer and commercial pilot in Canada, the United States and Australia. He is the founding member and past president of the Pacific Aircraft Maintenance Engineers Association. He is a founding member and a board member of the Maintenance and Ramp Safety Society (MARSS).
Dupont, who is often called “The Father of the Dirty Dozen,” has provided human factors training around the world. He retired from Transport Canada in 1999 and is now a private consultant. He is interested in any work that will serve to make the industry safer. Visit
www.system-safety.com for more information.
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HelicopterMaintenanceMagazine.com December 2019 | January 2020
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