According to documents and interviews, federal officials have been examining roughly 5,000 pilots suspected of faking their medical records in order to hide that they were getting benefits for mental health illnesses and other serious ailments that could render them unsuitable to fly.
The pilots under investigation are war veterans who informed the FAA they were fit to fly but omitted to mention – as required by law – that they were also receiving veterans benefits for impairments that could prevent them from flying.
The inconsistencies were uncovered more than two years ago by Veterans Affairs investigators cross-checking federal databases, but the FAA has kept key elements of the case hidden from the public.
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.” The FAA has now closed about half of those cases, he said, and has ordered about 60 pilots, who Lehner said “posed a clear danger to aviation safety,” to cease flying on an emergency basis while their records are reviewed.
Around 600 of the pilots under investigation are certified to fly for passenger airlines
According to a senior US official familiar with the subject who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing case, around 600 of the pilots under investigation are certified to fly for passenger airlines. The majority of the others have commercial permits that allow them to fly for hire, such as with freight businesses, corporate clients, or tour companies.
According to experts, the investigation has revealed long-standing flaws in the FAA’s medical system for screening pilots, and the sheer quantity of undisclosed health issues poses a risk to aviation safety. According to the physicians who conduct the exams, while pilots must pass regular government-contracted health screenings, the exams are sometimes perfunctory, and the FAA relies on aviators to self-report problems that can otherwise be difficult to detect, such as depression or post-traumatic stress.
According to physicians and former FAA officials, many veterans hide their ailments from the FAA in order to continue flying, but exaggerate them to the VA in order to maximize their disability compensation.
The FAA’s top executives, including its chief physician, Susan Northrup, rebuffed interview requests from the media
“There are people out there who I think are trying to play both sides of the game,” said Jerome Limoge, an aviation medical examiner in Colorado Springs who gives physicals to hundreds of pilots a year. “They’re being encouraged by VA to claim everything. Some of it is almost stolen valor.”
According to federal contracting records obtained by The Washington Post, the FAA’s Office of Aerospace Medicine spent $3.6 million starting last year to pay medical experts and other staff to evaluate certification records for 5,000 pilots who represent “potential risks to the flying public.”
The FAA’s top executives, including its chief physician, Susan Northrup, rebuffed interview requests from the media. Officials from the FAA’s parent department, the Department of Transportation, also declined to comment.
“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 reviewed their cases,” Lehner said in a statement. “The vast majority of these pilots may continue to operate safely while we complete the reconciliation process.”
Two cases were discovered only after the planes crashed
According to Lehner, as well as pilots and their attorneys, in many of the instances closed by the FAA, pilots have been instructed to amend their records and take fresh health tests; some have been temporarily grounded while the results are reviewed. Aviation regulators also discovered that several pilots did not reveal their VA disability benefits because FAA-contracted physicians instructed them not to, according to officials.
According to two senior U.S. officials familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation, the VA inspector general’s office is also investigating many of the 4,800 pilots to determine if any should be referred to the Justice Department to face charges of defrauding the benefits system.
According to court documents, at least ten pilots have been charged with lying to the FAA by concealing their veteran’s disability benefits and their health histories since 2018, including two whose cases were discovered only after their planes crashed.
Based on previous investigations and audits, as well as expert testimony before Congress, the FAA has known for over two decades that tens of thousands of pilots are likely flying with major hidden medical issues. However, transportation officials had long resisted legislative and watchdog efforts to expand background checks on pilots by running their identities through medical disability databases kept by other federal and state agencies.