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Vicki Van Meter, R.I.P.

Every now and then, we cross paths with a person who simultaneously needs legal work done and has mental health issues. The two are not necessarily related, but it's happened often enough that we've wondered whether being insane might not be a reason for hiring us in the first place.
Which got us to thinking about the unfortunate passing of aviation prodigy Vicki Van Meter. Ms. Van Meter came to public attention in 1993, when she was 11 years old. She piloted a Cessna 172 from Augusta, Me., to San Diego, Calif., sitting next to a flight instructor, but controlling the aircraft herself. Over the next several years, she went on to set more youngest-pilot-ever-to records, including a trip from Augusta to Glasgow, Scotland.
She shot herself dead at her home in Meadville, Pa., two days after her 26th birthday.
Her brother told the Wilkes-Barre, Pa., Times-Leader:

Daniel Van Meter, Vicki's brother, said she battled depression _ one of the reasons his sister was interested in studying psychology. He said that she opposed medication, but that her family thought she had been dealing with her problems.

"She was unhappy, but it was hard for her to open up about that and we all thought that she was coping," Daniel Van Meter said. "This really is a shock, because we didn't see the signs."

Ms. Van Meter's obituary lives here.
We know that depressed aviators often tend to oppose medication. The Federal Aviation Administration, which licenses pilots in this country, won't let them fly if they're taking anything but herbal supplements for their problem. In fact, something called Item 47 in a Federal Aviation Administration document called Guide for Aviation Medical Examiners-Decision Considerations says:

Note: The use of a psychotropic drug is disqualifying for aeromedical certification purposes. This includes all sedatives, tranquilizers, antipsychotic drugs, antidepressant drugs (including SSRI's), analeptics, anxiolytics, and hallucinogens.

The whole thing lives here. Most of the conditions that would be treated with these drugs are disqualifying as well. Bipolar disorder, for instance. Active psychosis. Many kinds of delusions and thought disorders.
It's tempting to blame the FAA for Ms. Van Meter's self-inflicted gunshot wound. Ellie Finlay at Child of Illusion did, and there may be something to her argument. We're not so sure.
With SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors), the problem is a little more complex than a bloated, insensitive bureaucracy crushing a young girl's dreams of flight. They don't always work, for one thing. For another, like most medications they have side effects.
GlaxoSmithKline's safety information page at its Paxil website, lists infection, nausea, diarrhea, dry mouth, constipation, decreased appetite, dizziness, sweating, tremor, sexual side effects, injury, yawning, weakness, insomnia, abnormal vision or sleepiness, dizziness, sensory disturbances (including electric shock sensations and tinnitus), abnormal dreams, agitation, anxiety, nausea, sweating, mood fluctuations, headache, fatigue, nervousness and sleep disturbances among the things that happen to people who use its various forms.
Trying to land an airplane while taking medication that produces "sensory disturbances (including electric shock sensations and tinnitus)" just sounds like a Bad Idea to us.
Moreover, there's some evidence that Ms. Van Meter had not been in the left seat for eight years. Aero-News Network tells us, "Van Meter stopped flying after her Atlantic crossing -- she suffered illness brought on by high altitude, turbulence, and disorientation on both flights -- but she continued to speak of one day becoming an astronaut."
The entire report lives here. Although nobody else seems to have picked up this particular detail, if true, it throws a spoke into the "life wasn't worth living once she couldn't fly" narrative.
We think that simplistic explanations are a waste of time. Experience suggests that it's rarely one specific event that triggers a decision to stare into the barrel of a gun and pull the trigger. We've known a number of people who've taken decisive action once they realized that they didn't want to live any more. Our high school algebra teacher was one, but that was three years after we graduated. Since suicide by its nature places its victims beyond explaining, we have to wonder and shake our heads while saying things like, "We never saw it coming."
Life goes on, and sadly, it goes on without Vicki Van Meter. Requiescat in pace.

Full post as published by West Neanderthal Drive on March 20, 2008 (boomark / email).