In the Aftermath of a Tragedy

Support for Pilots After an Accident or Incident

By Gavin Francis, Senior Aviation Writer

The January 29 mid-air collision between a military Black Hawk helicopter and PSA Flight 5342 that resulted in the loss of Capt. Jonathan Campos and honorary Capt. Sam Lilley, the first officer on the flight, and all those aboard is a stark reminder of the risks pilots face every day and the critical need for comprehensive support after an accident or incident. As the world’s largest pilots union and nongovernmental aviation safety organization, ALPA has developed critical resources to support accident investigations as well as essential mental-health and peer-support services for pilots.

During a recent episode of the Air Line Pilot Podcast, Capt. Jason Ambrosi, ALPA’s president, talked with Capt. Steve Jangelis (Delta), ALPA’s Air Safety Organization Aviation Safety Group chair, and Capt. Travis Ludwig (United), ALPA’s Pilot Assistance Group chair, about the work the Association is doing to recover from the tragedy of PSA Flight 5342, as well as other recent accidents and incidents. The following is an excerpt from that discussion.

Ambrosi: Steve, for those who might not be aware of what an NTSB investigation entails, can you walk through how ALPA participates in that process?

Jangelis: It’s a long, proven, and tried-and-tested process. Airlines have to comply with reporting to the NTSB whenever an accident occurs, and that’s governed by NTSB Part 830, which describes the severity of an accident, when it needs to be reported, why it needs to be reported. It also deals with injuries and their severities. And when something does get turned over to the NTSB, they’re notified. They deploy a Go Team, if needed, and they send experts in various aspects of aviation accidents. Those could be operations, systems, structures, air traffic control, and human performance. They’ve got a number of people on their staff who are able to respond depending on the type of accident. The on-scene investigation and data collection is important to the NTSB as well. So when they start the investigation and work with stakeholders like ALPA, airlines, engine manufacturers, aircraft manufacturers, and air traffic controllers, a number of us become a party to the investigation, and what they’re going to be looking at is wreckage examination and the flight data and voice recorder retrieval and transcription. They’ll be doing witness interviews and going over manuals and air traffic control records, including the radar; aircraft maintenance records; pilot flight logs; and previous landing and qualifications, among many other things. As the current NTSB chair, Jennifer Homendy, noted, we’re going to look at everything in the system. It’s going to be the aircraft, the human, and the operation, so we’re going to be looking at all of those systems whenever the NTSB puts together a Go Team to investigate an aircraft accident.

Ambrosi: You mentioned parties, and ALPA is a party to this investigation. What does that mean?

Jangelis: When they designate a group or a stakeholder as a party, it usually means they have direct involvement or they can supply knowledge, subject-matter experts, to the investigation. In the case of ALPA, it would be because our pilots were involved in the accident or could provide some information to the operation that the NTSB could use. The goal of the people who are involved in the party status isn’t to investigate for the NTSB, it’s to supply subject-matter experts and expertise for the investigation so that the NTSB can put together a final report. We’re there to just help and assist, and we’re at the direction of the NTSB throughout the whole process.

Ambrosi: But our people, if they have party status, are right there with them, going through all of the same stuff that they’re doing?

Jangelis: Yes…it’s always determined there at the accident site by the NTSB what groups they’re going to form—for example, operations, systems, structures, air traffic control. Those groups get formed on an as-needed basis. The best part about it is that ALPA has subject-matter experts available to the NTSB in all of those areas.

Ambrosi: Obviously, we see media reports. Everybody’s out there speculating on what’s going on, what happened. Everybody rushes to judgment, especially in the digital age where everybody’s got a cell phone camera. Tell us why it’s so important that people don’t rush to judgment.

Jangelis: With everything that we have going on in the media world, we have video and instantaneous gratification…whether it’s a car accident or a plane accident, or just everyday visuals…we don’t rush to judgment. If we think we have the answer, we probably don’t. We’re going to get together with all of the stakeholders in the room, the NTSB, all the OEMs, the manufacturers, and sit down and say, okay, here’s all the data we have. These are the facts. So now let’s come up with a probable cause.

Ambrosi: Travis, when an accident like this happens, what resources are available for our pilots who are understandably affected by a tragedy like this?

Ludwig: The Critical Incident Response Program [CIRP] is the program that ALPA runs for any of these accidents or incidents that are work-related. Specifically, we have kind of a two-frame process for this. We send a group of CIRP folks along with the accident investigators. They don’t actually go on scene with them. They stay back at the hotel. And then every night, we have a conversation and just a chat with them. And it’s a good confidential pilot-to-pilot chat to see how they’re doing and how they’re feeling. At the same time, we simultaneously launch CIRP representatives back to any of the offices around the system that might be affected. We also have the ability to use the ALPA hotline for pilots to reach out to CIRP individuals if they need to speak to somebody.

Ambrosi: It’s an essential service that CIRP provides to help pilots when they need it. What would you say to the pilot who might be struggling to internalize it, but they don’t want to look weak, for lack of a better term, by calling or asking for help?

Ludwig: Having the ability to speak about it to someone else, confidentially, to speak your mind, can be very cathartic and help that person heal from that tragedy so the trauma can be lessened, and that’s what our CIRP folks are trained to do. And I’d like to also point out that CIRP in this critical incident isn’t just for PSA pilots, but for all of our union members. They’ll respond whether it’s to a person who was at PSA and flowed to another airline, or if that person was on the end of the runway and watched it happen. They could be affected. And our CIRP reps are available for those folks also.

This article was originally published in the April 2025 issue of Air Line Pilot.