FAA: Nearly 5,000 Pilots Allegedly Lied About Having Medical Conditions Which Would Bar Them from Flying

Nearly 5,000 pilots are suspected to have lied about having mental health conditions and other health disorders which would prevent them from flying.

The Washington Post broke the news that nearly 600 of those pilots being investigated by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) fly planes for passenger flights and over 4,800 are veterans receiving disability benefits. The Post reported:

The pilots under scrutiny are military veterans who told the Federal Aviation Administration that they are healthy enough to fly, yet failed to report — as required by law — that they were also collecting veterans benefits for disabilities that could bar them from the cockpit.

Veterans Affairs investigators discovered the inconsistencies more than two years ago by cross-checking federal databases, but the FAA has kept many details of the case a secret from the public.

FAA spokesman Matthew Lehner acknowledged in a statement that the agency has been investigating approximately 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.

Data collected by the National Transportation Safety Board shows that pilots’ medical issues were the cause of 9 percent of fatal aviation accidents from 2012 to 2022. 

Navy veteran Noah Felice, who crashed a Cessna during an aborted takeoff, was convicted in December for making false statements to the FAA. The 72-year-old failed to disclose to the agency that he was collecting “$2,900 a month for post-traumatic stress disorder” and that he had six prior criminal convictions. 

However, some claim that the FAA is targeting veterans in their investigations and that non-veteran pilots are just as guilty for falsifying health records. Joseph LoRusso, a Colorado-based aviation attorney, said it is an open secret that 85 percent of pilots lied about or failed to disclose medical issues on forms. 

The Post reported that over one third of commercial pilots learned to fly in the military.