24/05/2026
Stort grattis till doktorsexamen, Filippa Folke!
Ett fantastiskt och banbrytande arbete på ett område som ligger oss varmt om hjärtat.
Läs avhandlingen här:
https://openarchive.ki.se/articles/thesis/Fit_for_flight_Working_conditions_and_mental_health_as_integrated_safety_risks_in_European_aviation/31456180?file=63725364
In modern aviation, a quiet personal decision is made thousands of times every day: whether a pilot or cabin crew member feels fit enough to fly.
Passengers rarely think about it. Yet the safety of every flight also depends on crew being able to step back from duty when they are too fatigued, ill, or mentally unwell to work. This thesis shows that such decisions are not only about individual choices, but also about working conditions.
Drawing on more than 15,700 survey responses from pilots and cabin crew across Europe, together with an interview study, a pattern emerged: health and safety behavior in aviation are not separate issues— they are linked to the same working conditions. We found that one in three pilots and one in two cabin crew had worked while unfit during the past six months. This behavior reflected a combination of demanding and unpredictable rosters, limited influence over work schedules, strained relations with management, atypical types of employment, and concerns about career and financial consequences.
These same conditions were linked to higher levels of depression and anxiety, and to a lower willingness to report mental health concerns through official aviation channels. Around 60% of crew said they would not use aviation-related pathways to seek help for mental health problems. These issues rarely appeared on their own. They often came as a package: poorer mental health, silence about struggles, and crew turning up to work despite feeling unfit to fly. In some airlines, this pattern was consistently more common than in others.
For regulators and airline safety management, the findings carry important information: decisions about fitness-to-fly are not purely individual choices. They are related to the conditions under which crew work—scheduling systems, employment arrangements, and the relationship between employees and management. In other words, aviation safety also depends on organizational and psychosocial working conditions that extend beyond what is typically addressed through traditional safety controls.
In the end, that decision about being fit to fly may feel personal, but it is shaped by the system around it.
TransportstyrelsenThe International Federation of Air Line Pilots' Associations (IFALPA)European PilotsEASA - European Union Aviation Safety AgencyKarolinska Institutet
