To me, no. One time TUL east side approach told me I needed to get on the ground right now for a personal emergency. A sibling had been hurt & my family called work which knew I was working local so they called the tower facility.
One time I was the only pilot in a small plane without an autopilot making an instrument approach to near minimums when my daughter started choking horribly behind me. Her Mom was back there also but that was not at all comforting. Did not even consider falling Apart or being distracted.
Was taken to a room and waited for an hour with one person, no explanation. Then four more people entered and I was told my daughter, same one from the aircraft, just years later, had been murdered. No breakdown. I asked if they were sure it was my daughter?
One of my sisters & myself were holding my Dad’s hands when he died. We knew it was happening. We did not break down & we three were the only ones in the room.
But your right, generally don’t do that in the air. They aren’t that uncaring to airline pilots. There was a wide call out from the ATC center I was working with when the “Challenger” blew up.
One time on Braniff’s “Fat Albert” during a trip to Hawaii, the pilots wife, who was a stewardess on that same flight, hard an heart attack or aneurism or something and died. They did not tell him until after he had landed the plane in Hawaii some 4 hours later. He did not fall apart.
The most personal of bad news for a pilot, “We have a fire back here.” Does not just happen on airliners.
All my life, shit has been happening, I am one who does not freak, but thinks.
That is how I became an old pilot.
::: shrug ::::