Fit for Flight? Inappropriate Presenteeism Among…

Fit for Flight? Inapropriate Presenteeism Among Swedish Commercial Airline Pilots and Its Threats to Safety

Citation: Johansson F, Melin M. Fit for Flight? Inappropriate Presenteeism Among Swedish Commercial Airline Pilots and Its Threats to Flight Safety. Int J Aerospace Psychology. 2018;28(1-2).

This cross-sectional study’s goals were to examine the prevalence of “inappropriate presenteeism” (i.e., when pilots attend work/flight duty while unfit for reasons other than obvious sickness, such as fatigue, poor recovery, mental health, or family stress) among Swedish commercial airline pilots. The study found that 54% of pilots reported flying despite being legitimately on sick leave in the past 12 months. 63% reported at least one occasion of inappropriate presenteeism. Pilots who reported inappropriate presenteeism were more likely to report committing 5 or more flight-duty errors in the past year, implicating that working when unfit may increase risk of operational errors. The authors suggest that current regulations and safety culture might be insufficient as they guard against obvious sickness but may not adequately account for fatigue, mental strain, recovery deficits, or non-illness drivers of unfitness.