Is it true that in the USA in 2021, mortality among pilots increased by 1700%?

In December 2021, social networks began to report that in parallel with the start of mass vaccination, American pilots began to die massively. We checked the reliability of such publications.

Users "VKontakte", Facebook And Twitter They distribute a screenshot with a certain list of American pilots who died in 2019–2021. They pay attention to the fact that, according to this screenshot, in 2019 there was only one case, in 2020-six, and in 2021-already 111. “With the current income of disposal by the end of the year, the number of victims of crazy“ vaccination ”among pilots in the United States can reach 150 people with an increase of 2400%of the year,” one of the authors of such publications summarize.

The screenshot that users of social networks distribute are taken from magazine Air Line Pilot Magazine. It is produced by Air Line Pilots Association (Alpa), which is on its own site calls oneself "the world's largest union of pilots." The Association unites more than 60,000 pilots of 38 American and Canadian airlines and calls its main goal “promoting and upholding all aspects of aviation security in all segments of the aviation community”, as well as “representing the interests of commercial aviation pilots”.

The screenshot of one of the pages of the September issue of the magazine for 2021, apparently, is genuine, although we were not able to find this issue in the open access. Nevertheless, the meaning of the in Memoriam section (“In memory of ...”) many Internet users at first in the USA, and then in other countries they interpreted incorrectly. Our colleagues from the American project Lead Stories Turned For a comment on Alpa, her representative answered the fact that the association had already explained the situation in her verified account on Twitter.

ALPA said that such lists of deceased pilots (both acting and retired) appear in each issue of their journal, and relatives of the pilots are transferred to them. It is important that the names in these lists appear as such messages arrive, that is, in the September issue (from where the screenshot is taken), information received from the moment of release previous in summer. “Information in one issue of the magazine does not represent a full -fledged report on all losses in each of the named years. We are honoring all members [association] for their work and honor their memory, ”concludes the representative of the organization on Twitter.

Although the authors of some comments on this tweet continue to express doubt (“It’s so simple ... How many pilots died in 2019? How many pilots died in 2020? But we all know ... no one wants to tell us”), checking the alpa statement is easy. Although the full issues of the Air Line Pilot Magazine magazine are available only to members of the association, we managed to find several numbers. For example, in the release for March 2019 under the heading in Memoriam It is 55 pilots who died in 2018, and 13 pilots who died in 2019:

In the December issue for the same year, the list is even more diverse: in it mentioned Pilots who died in 2007, 2009, 2013, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019:

A similar picture is possible observe And in the December issue for 2020:

Finally, neither in the statement of ALPA, nor other authoritative sources are related between the deaths of pilots and vaccination. Many American airlines really demand To be vaccinated from their pilots, but there is no reason to associate this with the data presented in the Air Line Pilot Magazine (especially if you take into account that among the names in the screenshot There is There are many people who have long completed their careers and dead at a very respectable age).

Photo on the cover: Wikimedia Commons

Not true

What do our verdicts mean?

Read on the topic:

1. Lead Stories. Fact Check: Pilot Deaths Are not 'Up 1700% After Vax Mandates'
2. Air Line Pilot Magazine