Members in the Media
From: The Globe and Mail

Brain scans of passengers on near-disastrous Air Transat flight studied

The Globe and Mail: 

Brain scans of passengers who believed they were about to die when their plane ran out of fuel over the Atlantic in 2001 are helping researchers better understand traumatic memories.

Air Transat Flight 236, bound for Lisbon from Toronto on Aug. 24, 2001, crash-landed in the Azores after gliding powerless over the ocean for 30 minutes. Some of the 306 passengers and crew on board developed post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, as a result of the terrifying scare.

Brain imaging of eight of those passengers, conducted nine years after the event, shows the memories of that harrowing experience retained a rich vividness that “lit up” areas of the brain related to memory, emotion and visual processing.

Read the whole story: The Globe and Mail

More of our Members in the Media >


APS regularly opens certain online articles for discussion on our website. Effective February 2021, you must be a logged-in APS member to post comments. By posting a comment, you agree to our Community Guidelines and the display of your profile information, including your name and affiliation. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations present in article comments are those of the writers and do not necessarily reflect the views of APS or the article’s author. For more information, please see our Community Guidelines.

Please login with your APS account to comment.