Accident Experience of Civilian Pilots with Static Physical Defects

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Accident Experience of Civilian Pilots with Static Physical Defects

J. R. Dille / C. F. Booze

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is committed to establishment of airman physical standards and certification policies that are as liberal as possible without compromising aviation safety. Through the years, medical flight test results, research, and consultant opinions have resulted in relaxation of medical standards and policies and current FAA certification of 4,704 pilots with blindness or absence of one eye, 14,421 who wear contact lenses, 15,779 with deficient color vision, 15,543 with deficient distant vision and smaller, but significant, numbers with paraplegia, deafness, and amputations. Limitations are placed on flying activities when appropriate. Routine aircraft accident investigations seek to determine the presence of physical problems in the involved airmen and any probable association of the defect with the accident cause. Three categories exceeded expectations significantly: blindness or absence of one eye, deficient color vision with a waiver, and deficient distant vision. However, these groups reported much higher median flight times than a non-accident airman population and accident airmen without any of the pathology selected for this study. Analyses of available data proved inconclusive but increased exposure may account for most or all of the increased accidents observed for airmen with these three pathologies.