In 2001, an Air Transat plane ran out of fuel over the Atlantic Ocean, putting the lives of 306 people on board at risk.
Photo Credit: CBC

Plane crash survivors shed light on memory, PTSD

Thirteen years ago, 306 passengers aboard a plane over the Atlantic Ocean were told their crippled aircraft would have to land in the water. They lived through 30 minutes of terror, before the pilot located land and glided the plane to a rough, but safe landing on an island in the Azores of Portugal.

One of the survivors became a psychologist who decided to examine some of the psychological effects on the passengers. In a study for Baycrest Health Sciences in Toronto, Margaret McKinnon questioned 15 passengers about their memories of the landing, their recollection of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the United States, and another neutral event from the same time period.

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Margarent McKinnon herself survived the crash landing and went on to study its effects on survivors.

“What we found in this small sample of individuals who experienced a single trauma, was that regardless of whether people developed PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) or did not develop PTSD, all had very vivid recollections of the traumatic event relative to the attacks of September 11th and to a neutral event,” said McKinnon.

The individuals who did develop PTSD had less control over memory, remembering many extraneous details from all three events, says McKinnon. That suggests that people who remember this way may be especially vulnerable to for the development of PTSD.  This could help psychologists in future identify who is vulnerable and provide treatment for them.

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