Nearly 5,000 pilots in the US are being investigated for suspicion of falsifying medical records to hide that they were receiving benefits for mental health conditions that deem them unfit to fly. 

Former officials and physicians at the US aviation agency revealed that many veterans minimize their medical issues to the Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) to keep flying but exaggerate them to the Veteran Affairs (VA) to maximize disability reimbursements.

FAA spokesman Matthew Lehner released in a statement that the agency is investigating 4,800 pilots “who might have submitted incorrect or false information as part of their medical applications.” He stated that half of those cases have been closed with 60 pilots, who Lehner said “posed a clear danger to aviation safety”, told to stop flying on an emergency basis while they are being investigated.

Around 600 of the pilots being investigated have a license to fly passenger airlines, according to an anonymous senior US official. A lot of the rest carry commercial licenses for cargo firms, corporate clients, or tour companies.

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

Threats 'to the flying public'

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According to the Federal Aviation Administration, medical conditions that could disqualify a pilot from flying include bipolar disease, epilepsy, psychosis, substance abuse, myocardial infarction, permanent cardiac pacemaker, coronary heart disease, and others. 

However, they are not automatically disqualifying since the FAA can grant waivers with restrictions when an illness is adequately controlled. Pilots are still required to accurately report medical issues, endure regular physical exams, and be monitored to maintain their aviation licenses.

Cited by The Washington Post, federal contracting records demonstrate that the FAA’s Office of Aerospace Medicine assigned $3.6 million as of last year to medical experts and staff members to reexamine certification records of 5,000 pilots who pose “potential risks to the flying public.”

“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 reviews their cases,” Lehner said in his statement. “The vast majority of these pilots may continue to operate safely while we complete the reconciliation process.”

In most of the closed FAA cases, pilots have been requested to undergo new exams while some continue to be temporarily grounded until results come out, according to Lehner, pilots, and their attorneys.

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An inside job? 

In a shocking revelation, officials claim that aviation authorities found that some pilots did not speak of their VA disability benefits because FAA-contracted physicians told them not to. 

Many of the 4,800 pilots are being looked into by the VA inspector general’s office to determine if they should be transferred to the Justice Department for charges of defrauding the system, per two anonymous senior US officials familiar with the matter.

According to court records, at least ten pilots have been prosecuted since 2018 on federal charges of concealing their veterans' disability benefits from the FAA and hiding their health histories - including two who were discovered after they crashed an aircraft.

Past investigations and statements from experts who have testified before Congress show that the FAA has known for almost 20 years that tens of thousands of pilots have serious undisclosed medical issues and continue to fly.