Introduction

Crew incapacitation is a situation where one or more crew members (or the entire flight crew) are no longer able to perform their job to the required level. It may range from one person being dizzy to the entire crew becoming unconscious. This is a special type of onboard medical emergency because the impact of the incapacitation may not be limited solely to the person(s) affected. Crew incapacitation can potentially hamper the ability to control the aircraft thus become a major safety hazard. On a number of occasions, flight crew incapacitation has lead to an incident or an accident.

Incapacitation Types

Generally speaking, there are two categories of incapacitation: obvious and subtle. The former is usually easy to recognize and its implications are fairly obvious. However the latter is often the more dangerous of the two due to the fact that the problem could remain unnoticed (even by the incapacitated person themselves). This easily prevents any corrective action being taken in time.