Project Wingman
Capt. Roger Monhollen, 737 Pilot
I’m a Dallas-Ft. Worth-based 737 international captain.
Capt. Linda Pauwels, 787 Check Airman
I’m a check airman on the 787.
Capt. Tom Streff, 787 Pilot
I’m a captain on the 787.
Capt. Roger Monhollen, 737 Pilot
My daughter called from school, she said I’m not feeling well. And so we took her to the ER. They ran tests all night and finally in one of the tests they found fluid around her heart.
Capt. Linda Pauwels, 787 Check Airman
My husband and I were on a cruise and the communications there were not very good.
Capt. Tom Streff, 787 Pilot
I knew something was wrong when I said to my wife, “Something is stealing my joy.”
Charles Curreri, Project Wingman
Project Wingman started in uh 2011 due to the fact that we had some significant mental health issues among pilots.
Capt. Roger Monhollen, 737 Pilot
They did open heart surgery and found cancer all around her heart. It’s cardiac sarcoma the – one of the rarest forms of cancer you can get. She passed away 3 weeks later.
Capt. Linda Pauwels, 787 Check Airman
So, my brother, who is also a pilot with American, he had called that our son was in the hospital, but didn’t give us a lot of details and we were able to actually reach him and he said that he had attempted suicide.
Capt. Tom Streff, 787 Pilot
When my head was buried in this couch and the only person I would talk to is my wife, that’s when I called Charlie and said, “Charlie, I need help.
Charles Curreri, Project Wingman
The biggest thing was that we needed to be in the flight department area here in the training department where everybody comes through every nine months.
Capt. Linda Pauwels, 787 Check Airman
The pilot personality is very mission oriented.
Capt. Roger Monhollen, 737 Pilot
We’re all kind of the same mentality that we can handle anything and you can’t.
Capt. Tom Streff, 787 Pilot
We as pilots, boy, we’re going to fix it. And we’re our worst enemy. We really are.
Charles Curreri, Project Wingman
But we normally say, you wouldn’t work like that on an airplane, would you. If you have a fire warning light, you’re not going to try and just do it by yourself, you’re going to ask the co-pilot or captain. You work as a team to get together. So, we say, as Wingmen, so let us come together with you and help you out.
Capt. Roger Monhollen, 737 Pilot
We all kind of have a bond as pilots and generally our personalities are a certain type and so we certainly know how to talk to each other and, you know, it’s easier to hear from a pilot than somebody that really doesn’t understand our lifestyle.
Charles Curreri, Project Wingman
Project Wingman offers a variety of resources. The biggest thing that we offer first is when you call the hotline, you’re getting a specifically highly-trained pilot answering the phone.
Curtis Joens, Project Wingman
Sometimes they just need a sounding board. They talk to us for 10 or 15 minutes and go, you know, I feel better, I can handle this.
Capt. Linda Pauwels, 787 Check Airman
I think that when you understand that kind of personality and the volunteers in the program are pilots as well, it just makes coping with some of these circumstances and addressing them easier.
Charles Curreri, Project Wingman
So, that phone call, once they establish that rapport, opens up a lot of doors. We’re just trying to become a safe place where they can come, sit and talk and have a pilot listen to them.
Curtis Joens, Project Wingman
It’s a confidential conversation. We offer to be their liaison. We've set up Project Wingman hopefully to be one stop shopping for our pilots when they're facing a difficulty or a crisis. This past year, we averaged between three and five phone calls a day. So well over a thousand calls a year.
Capt. Tom Streff, 787 Pilot
I felt like a total failure. I felt like I had failed my god, I’d failed my family, I’d failed my wife. I’d failed American Airlines.
Capt. Linda Pauwels, 787 Check Airman
One of the things that Charlie said uh is, you know, it’s okay um to have those moments when you feel weakness, when you need help and that validated it for me.
Capt. Tom Streff, 787 Pilot
I didn’t want to go through the process. I was afraid of the process. The fear of losing my income was huge.
Charles Curreri, Project Wingman
So we really reassure the pilot that we’re here to protect your ticket, your medical and we actually work with the FAA to make sure that we’re doing the right thing for the pilots to keep up to date with the medical bulletins.
Capt. Tom Streff, 787 Pilot
Get the help. It’s there for you and don’t fear it. Don’t fear it.
Charles Curreri, Project Wingman
The other thing we do is when you call the Wingman hotline, you are offered that Wingman until your problem is resolved -- that’s why it’s “wingman.”
Curtis Joens, Project Wingman
When you're in crisis, you don't need to be trying to navigate that system on your own. That's part of what being a good wingman is.
Capt. Linda Pauwels, 787 Check Airman
You can call back anytime and there are other resources available.
Capt. Roger Monhollen, 737 Pilot
I can’t tell you what all of that has meant to me and my family of just helping us get through that time.
Capt. Tom Streff, 787 Pilot
It’s incredible how good I feel now that I have the medication and that I’ve worked through all the issues that led up to the depression.
Charles Curreri, Project Wingman
American Airlines really believes in what Project Wingman is all about. I think that the whole culture is shifting in the whole airline industry that mental health has to be a part of medical because a mentally fit pilot is a safe pilot.
Curtis Joens, Project Wingman
More and more airlines are starting to come on board with peer support pilot assistance programs.
Capt. Linda Pauwels, 787 Check Airman
I just have a lot of appreciation and gratitude for the help that we received, all of us. It’s really one day at a time and so far so good, so far so good.
Capt. Tom Streff, 787 Pilot
It took awhile but I’ve got my joy back. And what’s really neat is I never thought I’d fly again. And by the grace of god I’m flying again and I’m loving it like I did when I got hired when I was 28-years old.
Capt. Roger Monhollen, 737 Pilot
A little bit prior to my daughter getting sick we had decided to become foster parents. He gave us a purpose to get up in the morning and to carry out through the day and we have since adopted him and he’s our little angel.