page_title: Suicide by pilot
hierarchical_section_title: Suicide by pilot
caption_attribution_description: N334AA, the Boeing 767-200 that was hijacked in the September 11, 2001 attacks as American Airlines Flight 11, taxiing at Manchester Airport in April 2001, five months before the attacks.
context_page_description: Suicide by pilot is an event in which a certified or uncertified pilot deliberately crashes or attempts to crash an aircraft in a suicide attempt, sometimes to kill passengers on board or people on the ground. This is sometimes described as a murder–suicide. It is suspected as being a possible cause of the crashes of several commercial flights and is confirmed as the cause in others. Generally, it is difficult for crash investigators to determine the motives of the pilots, since they sometimes act deliberately to turn off recording devices or otherwise hinder future investigations. As a result, pilot suicide can be difficult to prove with certainty.
  Investigators do not qualify aircraft incidents as suicide unless there is compelling evidence that the pilot was doing so. This evidence would include suicide notes, previous attempts, threats of suicide, or a history of mental illness. In a study of pilot suicides from 2002–2013, eight cases were identified as definite suicides, with five additional cases of undetermined cause that may have been suicides.
context_section_description: Suicide by pilot is an event in which a certified or uncertified pilot deliberately crashes or attempts to crash an aircraft in a suicide attempt, sometimes to kill passengers on board or people on the ground. This is sometimes described as a murder–suicide. It is suspected as being a possible cause of the crashes of several commercial flights and is confirmed as the cause in others. Generally, it is difficult for crash investigators to determine the motives of the pilots, since they sometimes act deliberately to turn off recording devices or otherwise hinder future investigations. As a result, pilot suicide can be difficult to prove with certainty.
  Investigators do not qualify aircraft incidents as suicide unless there is compelling evidence that the pilot was doing so. This evidence would include suicide notes, previous attempts, threats of suicide, or a history of mental illness. In a study of pilot suicides from 2002–2013, eight cases were identified as definite suicides, with five additional cases of undetermined cause that may have been suicides. Investigators may also work with terrorism experts, checking for links to extremist groups to try to determine whether the suicide was an act of terrorism.
  Most cases of suicide by pilot involve general aviation in small aircraft. In most of these, the pilot is the only person on board the aircraft. In about half of the cases, the pilot had used drugs, usually alcohol or anti-depressants, which would normally have led to a flying ban. Many of these pilots have had mental illness histories that they have hidden from regulators.
caption: This American Airlines Boeing 767-200, registration N334AA, operating as American Airlines Flight 11, was deliberately crashed into the World Trade Center North Tower by hijackers on September 11, 2001, killing all 92 people on board, and about 1600 on the ground.
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "MP640 series", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "350", "Image YResolution": "350", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Digital Photo Professional", "Image DateTime": "2012:03:15 17:08:32", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "136", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "456", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "6083", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2012:03:15 16:04:03", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2200", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1467", "EXIF FileSource": "Reflection Print Scanner", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto"}