Medical Fraud Among Pilots To Be Investigated By US House

[bomarc]

AVwebALERT News Alert -- March 27, 2007
-------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.avweb.com/eletter/archives/11/840-full.htm
House Committee Probes Aviation Medical "Fraud" (http://www.avweb.com)
House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman James L.
Oberstar, D-Minn., today released a committee oversight report that
identifies widespread fraud among pilots who hide serious medical
conditions from examining physicians to retain medical certification
for their FAA pilot licenses.
http://www.avweb.com

[barit1]

Not a new problem. This military charter L-188 went in (1966) after the captain suffered a heart attack on final (http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_id=70624&key=0).

[411A]

The Captain on that flight, Reed Pigman, was the chairman of American Flyers Airline, and was also the co-inventor of the Instrument Landing System, many years before.

Circling with a ceiling of 200 feet is never a good idea...:uhoh:

[hog tied]

Circling below circling mins.... I might have a heart attack too...

[Spon Clayton]

Right, but where does it prove he hid his condition? Isn't that the issue-anyone can keel over, unaware of the problem until too late.

[barit1]

If I can find the complete report in the L188 accident, there is evidence he hid the condition.
Meanwhile, here is another (http://www.caa.govt.nz/medical/ME_Newsletters/Med_news_8_05.pdf)source for DCA66A0006.

[411A]

Barit1 is correct.
The medical condition was known for years yet was covered up by the specific AME, and if I recall correctly, he went to jail as a result. It was rather well reported at the time.

[con-pilot]

I remember the Reed Pigman American Flyers Airline accident all too well. I was attending the University of Oklahoma and working at Will Rogers World Airport (KOKC) in Oklahoma City at night, from 10pm until 6am.

The flight was scheduled to land at OKC to refuel due to the poor weather conditions in Ardmore (KARD), the home base of American Flyers Airlines. I was notified about 30 minutes prior to the ETA that the flight had decided to go to KARD to refuel. I was told that the captain had decided that the weather had improved enough for them to land at Ardmore, refuel there because the fuel was cheaper and it was their home base.

If you are unaware of this Reed Pigman was the CEO of American Flyers Company, which along with the airline had a very large flight training school based in Ardmore.

Anyway, as it turned out it was a very long night after we were informed of the accident.

Oh, sorry 411A, I now see you already posted the fact that Reed Pigman was the boss at American Flyers.

[ahramin]

If all you old buggers would retire we wouldn't need all these incapacitation checks :). Just kidding.

[bomarc]

the trouble is even a young guy can have problems ...either unreported, or unknown.

if you know something is wrong and you lie and fly...shame on you.

if you don't know and no one knows...it shows why there must always be two pilots on the flight deck.

[barit1]

FWIW:
In the 50s-60s-70s Aviation Week often published complete (or nearly so) NTSB accident reports. Anyone with access to a library of this magazine will find a wealth of info on the conditions crews operated under, and by implication a historical timeline of how safety improvements have come about.
Bob Hotz was editor-in-chief then, and he called 'em as he see-d 'em. He made plenty of enemies I'm sure, but he did the industry a huge favor with his forthrightness. :ok:

[av8boy]

The full CAB report is here (http://www.avsaf.org/reports/US/1966.04.22_AmericanFlyersAirline_LockheedElectraL-188C.pdf).

Dave

[smith]

if you don't know and no one knows...it shows why there must always be two pilots on the flight deck

What happens if they are both hiding a secret?

[Grongle]

As long as their secrets don't come out simultaneously, you should be okay.

—I guess a man with a problem is he who has a heart attack which betrays him all the way into jail.

[Ignition Override]

The AVWEB article appeared to say nothing about fraud among COMMERCIAL, professional pilots. Especially pilots who work for airlines.

Or did I miss something?