Halladay Survived Plane Crash -- Could Boaters Have Saved His Life?

 An autopsy on Roy Halladay, the retired Major League Baseball star who died last fall in the crash of his light sports plane, shows that the former athlete survived the accident in the Gulf of Mexico and died from drowning and blunt force trauma, according to an autopsy report.

That Halladay, 41, did not die on impact but lived long enough for him to drown should prompt a reflection on the behaviour of boaters who arrived at the scene with cameras rolling but did not appear to have investigated whether the plane's pilot could have been rescued. The video shows that at least three ships were very close to the barely submerged plane some time before the Coast Guard arrived.

A video shot by one of the boaters just before the crash, Halladay's plane is seen maneuvering at low altitude before it hits the water. The alarmed men then accelerate to the scene.

Roy Halladay in Toronto in 2014 (Steve Russell / Toronto Star via Getty Images)

Roy Halladay in Toronto in 2014 (Steve Russell / Toronto Star via Getty Images)

Whether Halladay, who was alone on the plane that morning, could have survived if he had been pulled out of the water in a timely manner is not addressed in the report according to Bill Pellan, director of investigations for the District 6 Medical Examiner, which covers two counties in the Tampa area.

"Our office is not in a position (to answer that) because our doctors do not treat the living and we are not trauma doctors," Pellan told me when I asked if Halladay could have been saved. Pellan said that question is best answered by a trauma doctor who could see the impact injuries and determine if they were survivors.

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In a plane crash, the question of survivability is often part of the investigation.

There is No doubt that the National Transportation Safety Board will take note of other points made by the Medical Examiner: that traces of banned or restricted drugs were found for pilots in the Halladay system, including morphine, amphetamines and zolpidem, also known as Ambien.

The Federal Aviation Administration prohibits the use of morphine, an analgesic, by pilots and restricts the use of the sleeping drug zolpidem to not less than 24 hours before the flight. The Halladay level of zolpidem was 72 nanograms per milliliter almost 50% higher than the level considered to cause deterioration in the conductors.

In a food and Drug Administration drug and driving report released the same month as the Halladay accident, scientists wrote that pairing sleeping medications with amphetamines (stimulants) can increase risk-taking and aggressive driving.

Despite the fact that amphetamines are often included in drugs used to treat Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, the FAA does not allow their use by active pilots.