I’m eagerly awaiting Musk-U … for my kids
and hopefully we see Musk-steaks rather sooner than later
Perhaps he’ll try and trademark Musk Oxen.
Ah. The “Straight Dope!” NOW I get it!
Excellent! 
All the aircraft in the MuskAir fleet will be FSF – Full Self Flying. BTW, an updated article on the co-pilot who offered to shoot the captain says it was Delta Airlines. Like the Alaska Airlines dude, he too is now unemployed.
As to the co-pilot would-be shootist, we now have a dedicated thread; no need to hijack (:eep:) this one further:
NYT article with some more context. I continue to feel badly for the guy. Despite the terrible ending this could have had for many people, he really didn’t intend to harm anyone. I think that should count for something when it comes to determining the consequences.
Would be interested in reading the article but it’s paywalled.
I would be more sympathetic if the trigger event (consuming hallucinogens; perhaps consuming illegal hallucinogens, I couldn’t tell) wasn’t something completely within his control. This is not a “it could have happened to anyone” situation: this is the result of less-than-optimal choices that he made, with consequences that, if not predictable, were well within the range of possible.
Choices that were, in some part, influenced by the fact that pursuing any kind of mental health treatment is a risky undertaking for professional pilots. He’s certainly not the first among that group to self medicate - I’ve known a few myself. He was unfortunate in the severity and timing of his reaction to the mushrooms.
Not to say he’s faultless. But I think to start, he should not be charged with 83 counts of attempted murder.
Don’t forget that this also extends far beyond just consuming powerful hallucinogens prior to riding in the cockpit. He consumed the drug – which is far more intense and disorienting than alcohol or cannabis – just prior to going on duty as Captain of (I believe) a 737. That is grounds for throwing the book at him. He may (or may not) get some consideration from the court on mental health grounds regarding sentencing, but he will certainly never be in control of any aircraft again, commercial or private.
Here’s a non-paywalled gift link:
Thank you for the gift link. Very interesting article. After reading it (actually, I’m 3/4 of the way through) I have more sympathy for the guy. He’s sticking to his story that he took the mushrooms two days prior, and if he’s to be believed (could very well be true) they threw his already frazzled mind into a longer-term psychotic state. If so, he did not take them just prior to going on duty but was the victim of a real mental health crisis.
Still, he was guilty of being criminally irresponsible. Even GA pilots are required (in Canada) to abstain from as innocuous a drug as cannabis for 28 days prior to operating an aircraft, and all commercial airlines I know of require their flight crew to abstain completely. And of course more powerful and illegal drugs are totally off the table. And this guy willingly and knowingly took freaking magic mushrooms – which contain psilocybin and/or psilocin whose hallucinatory effects are comparable to LSD!
Yes: I have some sympathy for the circumstances (he made a very bad decision, but under the influence of grief) and also for the difficulty of overcoming barriers to mental health treatment in this industry.
But really, it sounds like the best thing to do is to retrain for a job that suits him better. I don’t wish him ill or anything; just my sympathy is tempered by his conscious decisions leading up to the crisis.
From the article:
… some researchers have cautioned that psychedelics may have prolonged effects for those vulnerable to a psychotic disorder.
So his story that he’d taken the mushrooms days earlier is plausible, but OTOH for this to have happened he must have been really, really mentally fucked up, which adds a whole other dimension of recklessness to the story. For him to continue flying in that mental condition – aside from the question of any drugs – was the equivalent of an extremely intoxicated alcoholic believing that he can drive. In both situations, good judgment becomes seriously impaired, but that has never been a legal defense for impaired driving and it should not be a defense here. At most, his mental health should probably be considered a mitigating factor in sentencing. It does not appear that he consciously intended or premeditated causing harm.
You seem to be basing this on an incomplete second-hand knowledge of psychedelics and mental health plus a few snippets from the last article you read. Things aren’t as black and white.
People shouldn’t be labeled as “really really mentally fucked up” because of one crisis event. The potential impact of this specific event was extreme, but a general internal struggle like he had is not uncommon. Many people on this board have struggled, and these kind of labels do them no favors.
I wasn’t trying to be judgmental in any way. The point that I was making is that the vast, vast majority of people who do psychedelics go through the experience, which may be good or bad depending on their mental state, then the drug wears off and they’re back to normal. I can easily understand that a bad mental state can lead to a so-called “bad trip”. What is hard for me to fathom is how a drug like psilocybin can trigger a dream-like psychotic episode that lasts for days. I’m simply saying that this seems indicative of a very serious and unusual mental breakdown. My apologies for the coarse language. No disrespect was intended to anyone.
It’s diathesis-stressor. He may never have had a psychotic episode before, or known he was vulnerable to it. He says he attempted to self-medicate, and this may have kicked him over the edge into psychosis. The mushrooms didn’t cause prolonged psychosis; they caused psychosis, which persisted beyond the chemical trigger.
You can see this mechanism in action in any hospital ICU where people are, say, treated with Haldol to increase kidney function after a major surgery. Although Haldol’s main effect is as an anti-psychotic, it’s used for this post-surgical purpose and paradoxically can cause short-term psychotic symptoms (if you’re lucky) and trigger long-term psychotic symptoms (if you’re not.) /former psychiatric hospital mental health therapist
ETA:
the vast, vast majority of people who do psychedelics go through the experience, which may be good or bad depending on their mental state, then the drug wears off and they’re back to normal
…because they don’t have a biological redisposition to a psychotic disorder.
Also classic bit of American policymaking…
- Umpteenth mass shooting with an AR-15 this year. Maybe change gun laws? Hell no.
- One dude might have taken mushrooms in the days prior to trying (and falling) to shutdown aircraft engines in flight. Stop all the mushroom legalisation
I dunno. Sure, it sounds tough that seeking treatment for mental illness or distress could jeopardize your career as a pilot. Should those rules be lessened? Do they keep depressives out of the cockpit, or do they just ensure that the depressives don’t admit or seek treatment for their problems.
But this guy sounds as though he was pretty stressed, and making some pretty poor decisions WRT self medicating. Woulda been no problem if he was driving a desk, but driving a passenger plane is a bit different. If you choose to pursue a career as a pilot, I imagine the rules about mental health and substance use are pretty clear up front.
And who else stuck the shrooms in his mouth? Either a really bad decision or evidence of irrationality - neither of which I would think desirable in a pilot.
Sorry the guy was going through some stress. But maybe he ought to have sought a leave of absence or a job as - maybe a classroom flight instructor or something?