Nearly 5,000 pilots lied about medical conditions: FAA

Nearly 5,000 pilots licensed to operate in the US were investigated for allegedly falsifying medical records to hide conditions that could deem them unfit to fly, the Federal Aviation Administration said.

The pilots — all military veterans — are accused of knowingly concealing serious health conditions or mental health disorders to the FAA, even as they reported them to other officials to collect disability benefits, The Washington Post reported.

The irregularities were first discovered more than two years ago — with about 4,800 pilots investigated so far and half of those cases closed, FAA spokesman Matthew Lehner said in a statement.

Of those cases, about 60 pilots “posed a clear danger to aviation safety” and were ordered to cease flying while their records were under review, Lehner added.

As for the rest whose cases are still open, “the vast majority of these pilots may continue to operate safely while we complete the reconciliation process,” Lehner said.

Of the pilots under investigation, about 600 are licensed to fly passenger airlines, with the rest holding commercial licenses the allow their hiring by cargo firms and other companies, a senior US official speaking on the condition of anonymity told the outlet.

The revelation has exposed a long-criticized method in which the FAA’s medical system screens pilots while often relying on aviators to self-report their conditions.

Experts say this method incentivizes vets to conceal their conditions from the FAA so they’ll be able to work — while often exaggerating the conditions to Veterans Affairs to bolster disability payments and coverage.

“There are people out there who I think are trying to play both sides of the game,” Jerome Limoge, an aviation medical examiner in Colorado Springs told the outlet. “They’re being encouraged by VA to claim everything. Some of it is almost stolen valor.”

Amid the investigation, the FAA also learned some of its own contracted physicians advised pilots to conceal their conditions, officials said.

The FAA’s Office of Aerospace Medicine has allocated $3.6 million to hire new medical experts and staff to reexamine certification records for the pilots under investigation.  

The FAA did not immediately respond to the Post’s request for additional information.

Although the cases of fraudulent reporting have been known to exist for over two decades, scrutiny was renewed around the world after Germanwings co-pilot Andreas Lubitz crashed a passenger plane into the French Alps in 2015.

An investigation found he had been treated for suicidal tendencies and depression, but hid the condition from his employer.

By 2019, investigators finally had the means to compare FAA data with VA records, with US Inspector General Michael’s office alerting officials to the nearly 5,000 troubling cases.

Michael’s office is investigating if any of the pilots flagged in the records sweep should be charged with defrauding the VA, officials told The Washington Post. .

Court records show at least 10 pilots have been prosecuted on federal charges for lying to the FAA since 2018, including Rick Mangini, 52, a former Army pilot.

Mangini, who has been grounded from flying for a cargo company because he failed to disclose his sleep apnea, said while the oversight needed to be addressed, the current crackdown appears to only target veterans.

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

About one-third of the country’s 110,000 commercial pilots are those who learned to fly in the military, according to the FAA’s records.