Suicide By Pilot

Suicide by pilot is an aviation event in which a 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.Charles Bremner (Paris), March 26, 2015, The Times
Locked door boosts pilot suicide theory
. Retrieved March 26, 2015 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.RICHARD LLOYD PARRY, December 16, 2000, The Independent
Singaporean air crash that killed 104 was suicide by pilot, say investigators
. Retrieved March 26, 2015, "...An airliner which crashed into an Indonesian swamp, killing all 104 people on board, was an apparent suicide attempt by the pilot, ... the cockpit voice and data recorders had been switched off half a minute before the aircraft began its descent." As a result, pilot suicide can be difficult to prove with certainty.Toby Young, March 16, 2014, The Telegraph
Could a four-year-old thriller unlock the mystery of flight MH370?
. Retrieved March 26, 2015, "...If this was a case of "suicide-by-pilot", why do we still know so little about the motive? I..."March 31, 2014, The Guardian
MH370: authorities release new account of pilot's final words: Malaysia's civil aviation authority say pilot's final words heard by air traffic control were 'goodnight Malaysian three seven zero'
. Retrieved March 26, 2015, "...Malaysia says the plane, which disappeared less than an hour into its flight, was likely to have been diverted deliberately far off course. Investigators have determined no apparent motive or other red flags among the 227 passengers or the 12 crew. ..."

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 work with terrorism experts, checking for links to extremist groups to try to determine whether the suicide was an act of terrorism.March 27, 2014, The New Zealand Herald
Flight MH370: Terrorism expert backs theory of pilot suicide flight
. Retrieved March 27, 2015, "...University of Canterbury Professor Greg Newbold, who lectures on terrorism, said the only person who could have changed MH370's computerised flight plan and switched off its electronics was someone who was highly experienced...."

A June 2022 ''Bloomberg News'' study of crashes involving Western-built commercial airliners revealed that pilot murder-suicides were the second most prevalent cause of airline crash deaths from 2011 to 2020, and that from 1991 to 2020, deaths due to pilot murder-suicides increased while deaths due to accidental causes significantly decreased. Furthermore, if China Eastern Airlines Flight 5735 is confirmed to be an intentional act, it will mean that deaths due to intentional acts have exceeded all other causes since the start of 2021. However, 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.

World War II suicide attacks

During World War II, the Russian aviator Nikolai Gastello was the first Soviet pilot credited with a (later disputed) "fire taran" in a suicide attack by an aircraft on a ground target, although his aircraft had been shot down and was in a rapid partially controllable descent. In the following years there were more suicide attacks; the best known by military aviators are the attacks from the Empire of Japan, called kamikaze, against Allied naval vessels in the closing stages of the Pacific campaign of World War II. These attacks were designed to destroy warships more effectively than was possible with conventional attacks; between and , 3,860 kamikaze pilots committed suicide in this manner.

List of declared or suspected pilot suicides

This list excludes World War II suicide attacks on ground targets (see section above).

Legend:

By pilots in control of whole flight