PTSD after an extraordinary emergency landing, the active healing process, and intensive educational work - what we can learn from Captain Richard de Crespigny, you can read here:
1. The Emergency Landing in Extreme Conditions
Already in the last year, we have occupied ourselves with Flight Qantas 32 extensively. Now, we will discover that the extraordinary event has not left the heroes as untouched as we may assume because of many confident interviews with the affected. De Crespigny has written about his own experience after the emergency landing elaborately in his book Fly!
Let us first summarise the most important stressors of Flight Qantas 32 briefly.
1.1. Multiple System Failures Led to a to This Day Unknown Condition
On a perfect day, Captain de Crespigny and his crew started into their flight to Sydney without any trouble. As they were still ascending, two loud noises were heard. Almost immediately after that a plethora of control systems failed. At first, the failures did not seem to be interrelated.
The unprecedented amount of failures and the corresponding error messages understandably stressed the crew. Now they faced difficult tasks and decisions, no crew has ever had to deal with before them.
1.2. Efficient Use of Resources for an Outstanding Achievement
Despite the multiple failures and the avalanche of error messages, the crew did not allow itsself for a single second to panic. Rather, it immediately started to use its resources efficiently by distributing the tasks skilfully amongst everyone present in the cockpit.
In the course of the event, it became evident that engine number two had been destroyed. Parts of it had punctured the wing and the lowest part of the fuselage and torn apart important hydraulic lines and systems. Fuel was leaking in great quantities.
Using the CRM principles in calm and continuous teamwork, captain de Crespigny and his crew managed an exceptional emergency landing, which in its entity, from the start of the planning til the deboarding, is a unique achievement.
1.3. Only Hours After the Emergency Landing, the Danger Was Over
Even after the braking on the runway of Changi Airport in Singapore was completed, fuel continued to leak out of the destroyed wing, also onto the brakes, which were over 900 degrees Celsius hot. The number one engine could only be extinguished with firefighting foam.
Only after the real danger of a fire, which, considering the amounts of fuel, could have had devastating consequences, was over, the crew could allow the passengers to disembark. Everyone left the airliner in good condition after several hours.
2. The Captain Realised His Health Condition
Directly after the landing, captain de Crespigny talked to his passengers and ascertained that they were well. One also discussed the subsequent fate of the A380. De Crespigny learned from his passengers that, for the time being, all Qantas A380s had been grounded.
2.1. The First Hours and Days After the Emergency Landing
After several debriefing sessions and after having made sure that the passengers and crew were well, the pilots stared their homeward journey to Sydney.
Also this flight in a Boeing 747 returned to Singapore, also this time due to an engine failure. With a delay of one more day, the travellers finally reached their destination. We can only try to imagine, how the crew has experienced this incident in the light of their own emergency landing.
The next morning, at home in Sydney, captain de Crespigny awaked early, feeling unwell. Five days after the incident, the Australian Transportation Safety Bureau, ATSB, started its interviews, which were part of the investigation process.
2.2. Reliving the Emergency Landing at the ATSB
The ATSB had allocated twenty minutes for the interview with captain de Crespigny. It lasted for four hours. The pilot was asked to report on the events after having left the hotel. He did so and reached the point at which he had to decide to stay within 30 miles of Changi Airport in order to be able to minimise the consequences of a total engine failure by gliding to the airport.
Reliving the situation caused him maximal stress. He saw himself back in the cockpit, going through the stress once more, which the multiple failures and the corresponding error messages had caused.
2.3. Recognising the Problem and Breaking Down
In this very moment, de Crespigny, who had not known anything about PTS and PTSD before his emergency landing, realised that he was in trouble. Living through this stress anew, overwhelmed him. He broke down publicly and started to cry, the first time after the death of his mother 37 years earlier, when he was seventeen years old.
3. The PTSD Became Manifest
3.1. The First Signs
Every time de Crespigny relived the moment of his decision during the following two weeks, he started to cry. He realised that he would need professional help. Flashbacks added to his condition.
Even more exhausting than the flashbacks were the continuous, automatically replaying loops of the hours, which followed the audible explosion of the engine. De Crespigny was caught in these day and night. He did not have the mental capacities to think of anything else. He could not grasp what he was just reading.
Due to this endless loop and also due to the dreams connected to it, his sleep at night was severely disturbed. He experienced it as too light, almost half awake, even when he was dreaming. Accordingly, he awakened more worn down than refreshed in the morning.
A PTSD can also be associated with physical illness, which de Crespigny experienced, as well. More severe than ever before, he fell ill with pneumonia, from which he could only recover after two months.
3.2. De Crespigny Talked to his Managers Openly
As an acknowledgement of a previous achievement, he was chosen to take delivery of a new A380 in Toulouse and fly it to Australia. De Crespigny, though, talked openly to the manager of the A380 fleet and declined the offer. The manager, in turn, thanked him for his honesty. After this event, de Crespigny seeked counselling.
In addition, he told a manager, who believed that de Crespigny would need a few days off, frankly that he supposedly would need a few months.
3.3. An Active Healing Process Began
With his analytical mind, de Crespigny had always wanted to get to the core of things. Also when dealing with his PTSD it was important to him to understand the brain and its functions first in order to subsequently find out how the mechanisms of a PTSD work.
In doing so, he managed to understand his emotions, accept them as normal reactions, and not to consider them as something of which one should feel ashamed.
There are many ways to treat PTSD clinically. De Crespigny worked out his strategy together with a psychologist in severals sittings. It included the replacement of unwanted memories with positive ones.
De Crespigny has not only read intensively about the physiology of PTSD, but has also started to write about it, which helped him tremendously with his work on his condition.
4. Back to Everyday Work After the PTSD
4.1. Coming Back as a Pilot
De Crespigny realised after three months that he looked up to the sky to the flying aeroplanes. In these moments, he felt that he would like to fly again.
After four months, captain de Crespigny was ready to recommence his duty as a pilot with Qantas, as he felt mentally fit due to his intense work.
4.2. Back in the A380, Flying out of Singapore Again
After his return to work, Captain de Crespigny has taken off from Singapore heading South many times, also in the Nancy-Bird Walton, the A380 whose engine had been damaged.
Due to his work on his memories during his healing process he managed to cope with these take-offs without any problems. Sometimes, memories of Qantas 32 emerged, but he thought of them matter-of-factly, and not as emotional triggers.
5. What Do Relatives Experience?
This question leads us to a topic whose relevance apparently only becomes visible at second glance.
5.1. All of a Sudden, Somenone Asked de Crespigny´s Wife
At a party, three months after the event, someone asked de Crespigny´s wife Coral for the first time how she felt about her husband´s emergency landing and his PTSD. Now, she was the one who burst into tears. Even much later, de Crespigny was surprised to hear that certain aspects of the emergency landing still upset her.
5.2. Hardly Considered in the Literature
How relatives experience the PTSD of their partners, or close family members, is rarely considered in the literature. It can be truly difficult for them, though, to deal with sudden mood swings, and avoidance behaviour, aggressiveness, or a sudden burst into tears with no apparent reason.
They need help, as well, in order to understand the situation. They should have the opportunity to talk about their experiences and receive help to feel encouraged. With professional guidance, they might be better equipped to offer familiar surroundings to the affected during their healing process.
6. Captain de Crespigny Informs Intensively About PTSD
The most commonly question that people ask de Crespigny is why he did not pass his routine check on QF32 (the check captain got involved directly in the flight operations). The second most common questions are about PTS and PTSD.
6.1. De Crespigny´s Important Statements About Dealing with PTS and PTSD
De Crespigny has occupied himself intensively with the physiologic processes in the brain in order to explain PTSD logically. He advocates for paying close attention to employees and observe the signs. If someone is suffering from PTS, or PTSD, he believes it is important to talk to the affected person, and to show understanding and empathy. First and foremost, one should signal that it is alright to interrupt one´s work to deal with the condition.
Especially when he declined the offer to take delivery of the A380 in Toulouse, he stated clearly that particularly leaders, who contibute to safety considerably, should be aware of their responsibilty. Hence, they should state honestly if their condition does not allow them to take on a task.
6.2. Varied Commitment
Richard de Crespigny has written the two books Fly! and QF32. He has dealt with PTSD mainly in Fly!, though. Additionally, he has already spoken in front of many professionals from many lines of industry, as well as governments. Further, he is involved in the clinical safety programmes of many organisations.
6.3. Reactions
Here, we will pick two relevant observations, de Crespigny has made. First, about half of the people he wrote about in QF32 contacted him and thanked him for having written about PTSD. They had had similar experiences. Partly, they suffered from long-lasting nightmares. De Crespigny wrote in Fly! that apparently every crew member, and most of the passengers had lived through either PTS or PTSD.
At book presentations, often ladies approach him and ask him to sign a copy for their husbands. When he answers them: "sure, but why doesn´t he come to me himself?" the usual reply is: "He can´t, he is outside, crying."
Many who have experienced PTS or PTSD might recognise this. It is too difficult for some, to talk about traumatic memories openly. Especially if someone hides his or her emotions and believes that he or she has to master the difficult task of coping with the experiences alone, these very emotions may overwhelm the affected all of a sudden.
As it is so important to catch the affected before things develop this far, it is superb that someone like Richard de Crespigny, who has suffered PTSD himself, does such precious educational work.
7. What Do We Learn from This?
A possible conclusion might be:
We can only train ourselves to observe the signs of PTS and PTSD actively, to recognise them, and to talk about help with the affected.
It is not a weakness to recognise a PTSD in oneself, but the courageous first step to deal with it actively. No-one should feel ashamed because of a PTSD.
8. In the Next Blog Article We Will Start with 15 Brilliant Principles
The 15 CRM Principles by Rall and Gaba have been established in the emergency medical service and in many clinical areas. Their consequent use ensures us a structured and constructive teamwork with good communication in order to minimise errors. Broken down to three manageable blog articles, we will examine these, using a wealth of examples.
Author: Eva-Maria Schottdorf
Date: August 30th 2022
On my blog page , I have linked more blog articles for you.