Honesty’s Failures as a Guiding Policy

U.S. federal investigators suspect some 4,800 pilots—primarily U.S. military veterans—falsified their medical records for purpose of concealing their receipt of V.A. benefit conducive to the treatment of mental health disorders and similarly serious conditions by dint of which they could be deemed medically unfit to fly.

Veterans Affairs investigators discovered the inconsistencies by cross-checking federal databases. The FAA, however, has purposefully concealed the debacle from public scrutiny.

FAA spokesman Matthew Lehner acknowledged in a statement that the agency has been investigating about 4,800 pilots “who might have submitted incorrect or false information as part of their medical applications.”

Lehner alleged the FAA has closed approximately half the aforementioned cases and has ordered some sixty pilots who “posed a clear danger to aviation safety” to cease flying on an emergency basis while their records are reviewed.

Approximately six-hundred of the pilots under investigation hold ATP certificates. The remainder hold Commercial certification.

Aviation pundits have hastened to point out the investigation has exposed long-standing flaws in the FAA’s pilot medical evaluation and recording system. While pilots must meet the provisions of FAR Part 61.23 (Medical certificates: Requirement and duration) the requisite exams are often cursory. In point of fact, the FAA relies largely upon aviators to voluntarily divulge the onset of difficult-to-detect medical conditions such as depression or post-traumatic stress.

Federal investigators determined a number of U.S. military veterans seeking to retain their medical certificates and the flying privileges afforded by such downplayed their ailments to the FAA but exaggerated such to the V.A.—allegedly in hopes of maximizing disability payments.

Aviation medical examiner Dr. Jerome Limoge remarked: “There are people out there who I think are trying to play both sides of the game. They’re being encouraged by V.A. to claim everything. Some of it is almost stolen valor.”

Federal contracting records show the FAA’s Office of Aerospace Medicine, in 2022, allotted $3.6-million for the hiring of medical experts and support staff tasked with reexamining certification records for nearly five-thousand pilots allegedly posing “potential risks to the flying public.”

Mr. Lehner stated: “The FAA used a risk-based approach to identify veterans whose medical conditions posed the greatest risk to safety and instructed them to cease flying while the agency reviews their cases. The vast majority of these pilots may continue to operate safely while we complete the reconciliation process.”

In many of the cases closed by the FAA, pilots were ordered to correct their records and present for new medical examinations; some aviators were temporarily grounded while reviews of their medical records were conducted. FAA personnel learned, also, that some pilots failed to disclose their V.A. disability benefits on the advice of FAA-contracted physicians.

According to two senior U.S. officials familiar with the matter, the V.A. inspector general’s office is currently endeavoring to determine which, if any, of the 4,800 pilots targeted by federal investigators ought be referred to the Justice Department to face charges of defrauding the benefits system.

Court records show that since 2018, at least ten pilots have been prosecuted on federal charges of lying to the FAA by failing to disclose their respective veterans disability benefits and obfuscating their personal health histories. Two such cases came to light only in the wakes of accidents involving aircraft flown by the defendant pilots.

Past investigations, audits, and the testimonies of experts before Congress suggest the FAA, for at least two-decades, has been aware of the likelihood that tens-of-thousands of pilots suffering serious, undisclosed medical conditions are operating aircraft in the U.S. National Airspace System (NAS). Nevertheless, Department of Transportation (DOT) officials have long resisted pressure from lawmakers and watchdog groups calling for expanded background checks on pilots, and the running of aviators’ names through medical disability databases maintained by state and federal agencies.

The ongoing federal investigation of FAA medical certificate falsification got underway in 2019, when the V.A. inspector general’s office—acting on concerns that pilots may have been hiding mental health conditions or fraudulently receiving disability benefits—cross-checked the agency’s disability benefit records against an FAA database of U.S. military veterans holding civilian pilot certification. Approximately one-third of America’s 110,000 Commercial and ATP certificated pilots are former U.S. military aviators.

V.A. Inspector General Michael Missala set forth: “Given the serious safety issues involved with flying commercial airplanes, and to promote the proper use of significant taxpayer dollars, we have been proactively reviewing certain VA disability benefits paid to commercial pilots based on conditions that may be disqualifying if true.”

In March 2023, an aviation organization petitioned the FAA to declare an amnesty for pilots caught up in the review. The group argued the overly-broad questions presented in the FAA medical certification form occasion inadvertent errors by pilots unfamiliar with the medical arts and the argot peculiar thereto.

“This is a complex issue, and it would be easy to just point fingers at the thousands of pilots caught up in the issue,” the Association contended.

The FAA’s review has compelled some pilots who served in the U.S. military to complain of unfair treatment.

Rick Mangini, 52, a former U.S. Army pilot grounded from his cargo-flying job after the July 2023 suspension of his FAA medical certificate, asserted: “If they’re going to shine a light on veterans, they need to shine a light everywhere.”

Mr. Mangini was notified by the FAA that he was under review for failing to disclose sleep apnea, for which he receives VA disability benefits.

“I know of a lot of pilots who have told me about [medical conditions] they aren’t telling the FAA about,” Mangini confided. “What they’re doing to veterans? That’s the definition of harassment.”

FMI: www.faa.gov