Senate-approved bills aim to ease burden on pilots amid mental health ‘stigma’

Pilots and air traffic controllers in the US could soon have an easier time achieving a healthy mental altitude – a move with implications for the safety of air travel in America.The US Senate recently approved bills aimed at encouraging aviation professionals struggling with a mental health condition get treatment.The House and president must still approve the legislation, but if that happens, the law could help those with depression and anxiety who are reluctant to seek medical care because they worry it will hurt their high-pressure career.“It starts breaking down the stigma and showing that when you raise your hand asking for help, it is no longer a third rail,” said Chris Finlayson, a pilot and executive director of the Pilot Mental Health Campaign.A 2016 survey of more than 1,800 pilots found that almost 13% met the criteria for a depression diagnosis and 4% reported having suicidal thoughts, according to a study published in the journal Environmental Health. Among European airline pilots, a quarter suffered from anxiety and 40% displayed alcohol misuse, according to a 2025 report in the Frontiers in Public Health journal.Among US air traffic controllers, 19% struggled with moderate to severe anxiety, a 2025 Collegiate Aviation Review International report states.While many adults struggle with those issues, pilots and air traffic controllers are less likely to seek care because of the stigma and concerns that it could disqualify them from flying, according to people in the industry.In 2015, a Germanwings airline pilot, who had suffered from suicidal tendencies, deliberately flew a plane into the French Alps, causing 150 deaths. Afterwards, US senator Dianne Feinstein commissioned a report which found that the Federal Aviation Administration’s “ability to mitigate safety risks is limited by pilots’ reluctance to disclose mental health conditions”.“You put a bunch of type A people that enjoy being in control [with] frankly archaic mental health standards for those type of people, and then you add in a little touch of federal bureaucracy and you have a perfect storm for people who just do not want to admit or say they have they have issues,” said Finlayson, who in 2021 developed long Covid and started to experience depression and anxiety attacks.The Federal Aviation Administration has guidelines concerning which health conditions prohibit pilots from flying because, of course, they control the fate of thousands of people.As such, pilots must disclose their medical history and medications to an aviation medical examiner approved by Federal Aviation Administration.Until recently, the United States had much stricter rules than other countries concerning how long pilots with depression had to remain grounded.For example, if pilots disclosed that they had started taking an antidepressant, they could not fly for a minimum of six months. In the United Kingdom, they can return to flying in as little as one month. The FAA also requires pilots to get approval from more doctors than other countries and to undergo neurocognitive testing, which other countries also do not require.“Reporting these conditions has created an extra regulatory step to keep working,” said Dr Gregory Kirk, a psychiatrist who evaluates pilots to determine if they can safely fly.Finlayson started taking an antidepressant, which provided relief, but he could not fly for six months. He then tried to stop the drug because he thought the depression was just tied to long Covid and temporary but realized he needed it, which meant he had to wait another six months to work. The FAA also kept asking him to do more testing, he said. He ultimately did not return to the cockpit for almost five years.“It’s a death by 1,000 paper cuts,” Finalyson said. “There is this expectation that if you have even a mild to moderate treatable mental health issue, that you are a detriment to safety, even though that is not what modern science shows.”In December 2025, the FAA changed its protocol to allow pilots to potentially return to the sky three months after starting an antidepressant. The legislation would shorten it to two months, which is still longer than most other countries. Antidepressants typically achieve their full therapeutic effect within four to eight weeks.“If science has proven that a two-month period of waiting is appropriate, then that is what we should go to,” said Dennis Tajer, a spokesperson for Allied Pilots Association, the union for American Airlines pilots. “The longer the waiting period, if it’s not based in science, the more likely a pilot is to say, ‘Nah, I got this. I don’t want to put my career on hold that long.’”The legislation also directs the FAA to follow its mental health aviation rule-making committee’s recommendations, including that it “minimize the requirement for neurocognitive testing”.One of the bills, the John A Hauser Mental Health in Aviation Act, named for an aviation student who died from suicide in 2021, calls for a public information campaign to “destigmatize individuals” in the aviation industry who seek mental health care.Finalyson, who loves his job, said he is doing “phenomenal” because he received the medical care he needed.“The whole point of our movement,” he said, “is that once you get treated, you’re good to go.”