"SHOCKING" Pilot Drug Use: 1 in 4 Fatal Crashes Linked to Blame? #shorts

Added: 2026-05-28

[00:00:00]Thinking of Speaking of things that are stupid, the NTSB report has come out that one in four fatal accidents, pilots are testing positive for drugs. The headline I didn't believe it when I saw it. Yeah, the headline is a bit scary when you see it at first, but like when you start to dig into the story cuz I saw this and I was like, "Whoa, what are you talking about?" And honestly, my first thought went to, "Okay, we know how much of the problem there is with like antidepressants." And we know that most pilots are probably taking them even though they're not supposed to. But when you dig into this report, the NTSB reported one in every five and this is fatalities involved in accidents. So, actually individual people. One in every five is using some sort of drug. 3% Actually, 53% of them have a drug in their system of any kind. 28 to 29% have some sort of potentially impairing drug.

[00:00:45]Now, that includes illicit substances as well as things like Benadryl.

[00:00:51]>> [laughter] >> Stuff like that that's over-the-counter.

[00:00:53]So, it doesn't mean that they're actually like impaired. We don't really know, but that was a very catchy headline this week and a little bit scary. You When you read that, it reads as though every airline pilot is doing drugs. Like that is When you read it, that's kind of what you your brain goes to. That's where my brain went to. And that's not 100% the truth. That is a And also, maybe write headlines that are like, "GA pilots in general, you know, over-index over-index for possibly doing drugs." As opposed to, you know, you said that you're not thinking, "Oh, the next time I get on my Delta Airlines flight that maybe one of the one of the pilot smoked a smoked doobie this morning. Yeah, no. But I think it's like to, you know, one of the things the mental health issue has been an issue for a long time and I think what a lot of people know but don't really want to say out loud is there are a lot of pilots taking medications that aren't FAA approved because they don't want to lose their jobs. So, that's kind of the push for honesty instead of people just taking things that they shouldn't be taking and hiding it is to say like, "Okay, let's come up with a regulatory path in which they can take it and prove that they are okay and competent. Like, that's, you know, a constant push and pull here.