FAA licensed pilots submit false medical reports

[Wes Bucey]

I'm curious to your reaction to this article from Reuters News Service

Jul 19, 12:41 PM (ET)

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Grand juries across California have indicted 40 pilots for fraud after they falsified medical records to hide disabilities like schizophrenia and severe heart problems that would have grounded them, federal officials said on Monday..
The pilots claimed to be fit to fly airplanes but collected disability payments for medical and psychological conditions that would have disqualified them from operating an aircraft, according to a statement by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of California. Other pilots failed to report they had prior criminal convictions, the statement said.

Authorities said they found pilots who continued to fly even though they had disabilities including schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, drug and alcohol addiction, disabling back pain and severe heart conditions.

The indictments follow an 18-month probe of 40,000 licensed pilots in California by federal transportation officials, the Social Security Administration and the U.S. Attorney's office.

The statement said a number of commercial pilots and airline transport pilots were among the people indicted, but it did not provide details.

The pilots committed fraud when they didn't report their disabling medical conditions on their Federal Aviation Administration Medical Airman certificates, according to the statement. That certificate is the key document to obtaining and maintaining an active FAA pilot's license, the statement said.

The FAA has revoked 14 of the pilots' licenses and medical certificates, the other 26 pilots may be suspended.

I'm curious how commercial pilots slip past scrutiny of their employer. General aviation pilots are much easier to believe as perpetrators of hoaxes to keep flying since they generally have little or no oversight between license renewals. Commercial pilots, however, are under constant scrutiny of flight and ground crews. We hope one of them might report suspicions (even anonymously) rather than risk life flying with such a pilot at the controls.

 

[tomvehoski]

Media hype with very little useful information that I see.

As a frequent flier, I would want to know:

How many of them have actually operated an aircraft in their "condition"?
How many were not flying because of their condition but simply forgot to file the appropriate paperwork? I don't know how often this paperwork must be submitted, but really - if you hold a general aviation licence to fly your single engine Cessna once a month and were just diagnosed with some really bad disease, is updating the FAA going to be the number one thing to do?
How many were commercial vs. general aviation?
What airlines did they work for?

I'd like to see the pareto on the reasons for the conflict. I'm guessing few, if any, would affect any flight I will ever be on.

Editing to add: Just saw this on Yahoo news as one of the top headlines of the day withe the headline "Now, this is one scary story..." Way over hyped. Link: (broken link removed)

 

[tomvehoski]

More info on the USA Today site:

FAA spokesman Donn Walker said it was unclear how many of the pilots flew for a living, but that at least a dozen of them held commercial or airline transport licenses.

Thirty pilots are charged with making false statements to a government agency, and 10 are charged with making and delivering a false official writing.

Its a fraud issue, not airline safety as implied.

 

[JRKH]

Media hype with very little useful information that I see.

As a frequent flier, I would want to know:

How many of them have actually operated an aircraft in their "condition"?
How many were not flying because of their condition but simply forgot to file the appropriate paperwork? I don't know how often this paperwork must be submitted, but really - if you hold a general aviation licence to fly your single engine Cessna once a month and were just diagnosed with some really bad disease, is updating the FAA going to be the number one thing to do?
How many were commercial vs. general aviation?
What airlines did they work for?

I'd like to see the pareto on the reasons for the conflict. I'm guessing few, if any, would affect any flight I will ever be on.

Editing to add: Just saw this on Yahoo news as one of the top headlines of the day withe the headline "Now, this is one scary story..." Way over hyped. Link: (broken link removed)

Since they are already collecting disability payments I think that they had time to update their flight status records.

James

 

[Wes Bucey]

Since they are already collecting disability payments I think that they had time to update their flight status records.

James

Yep! I thought the article and (probably) the indictments and "criminal complaints" (a technical term for the paperwork when someone plea bargains) made it abundantly clear the licensure came AFTER the condition was known; that the medical records were "fudged" to get the license.

Hollywood storylines for years have suggested that some commercial and general aviation pilots were hiding dire medical conditions, bringing about the plot crisis where some untrained person has to take over the controls in midflight. I suspect Hollywood followed some true life cases and made them more dramatic (but not completely fabricated out of "thin air.")