Originally Posted by
ferry pilot
Perhaps your experience supports your conclusions. All I can say is mine does not. I flew for a very long time with a lot of pilots with a lot of problems, but not the one we are discussing here . Something has changed.
1) Recorded suicides of pilots go back to the 1970's
2) Even if it was a new phenomenom, mind you that correlation does not mean automatically causation. There more pilots today compared to 50 years ago, hence more cases, just as an example.
3) You can't possibly know what personal problems the pilots you flew with had or not had. Depression is not something written on your forehead. You mix up personality, intelligence, pilot skills or public appearance with an often disclosed mental illness. Additionally, to state the obvious, a depression can affect anyone. It can also be transient, so even if you would be a mind reader the colleague could have been healthy in your presence and sick before or thereafter
4) Anecdotal experience is no evidence. I would hence as opposed to you never claim that my experience supports a general conclusion. And what "experience" could that possibly be in the first place?