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FAA Revokes Certificates Of 60 Pilots Getting VA Benefits
By Russ Niles -Published:August 28, 202326

The FAA says it's revoked the pilot certificates of 60 pilots as part of a project by the Department of Veterans Affairs to cross-reference its list of those receiving benefits with the medical records of active pilots. According to a Washington Post report, there are a total of 4,800 pilots, including 600 ATPs, who were under review because they are also VA beneficiaries. FAA spokesman Matthew Lehner told the Post about half the files have been completed and the 60 revocations were for pilots who "posed a clear danger to aviation safety."

Lehner said most of those under review have nothing to worry about. "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 a statement to the Post. "The vast majority of these pilots may continue to operate safely while we complete the reconciliation process." Some have been told to fix the paperwork submitted with their medicals while others have to get fresh medicals.

For its part the VA is trying to weed out fraudulent claims while also protecting public safety. "Given the serious safety issues involved with flying commercial airplanes, and to promote the proper use of significant taxpayer dollars, we have been proactively reviewing certain VA disability benefits paid to commercial pilots based on conditions that may be disqualifying if true," Department of Veterans Affairs Inspector General Michael Missal said in a statement. "We will continue to work with VA and other stakeholders to ensure the integrity of the benefits and services reserved for our nation's veterans."


https://www.avweb.com/aviation-news/faa-revokes-certificates-of-60-pilots-getting-va-benefits/

You can bet there is more to come on this front…

Should've been done long ago, to be perfectly honest.  

How can you argue you're ok to fly a plane commercially (or otherwise) but you're 100% disabled?

How does the VA allowing the FAA access to veterans medical records and diagnosis square with Hippa?

Seems like a logical plan to fight fraud. But, how many pilots will just avoid getting care from the VA in the future for fear of losing their livelihood?

HIPPA, SHMIPPA.

How irresponsible and selfish would said pilots be, at that point?  And wouldn't that further reinforce both the FAA's and VA's concerns?

“and to promote the proper use of significant taxpayer dollars”

Not pilot related, but they need to start doing this for folks working on overseas contracts. Dudes claiming to be 100% disabled but yet they are roid raging at post and waving the bro-vet flag every chance they get.

It's not a measure of disability, it's disability compensation.  Good be one or two big things or a thousand little things adding to the 100 via VA math.

100% compensated isn't a big deal on it's own.

Now when you go digging into the claimed conditions and see high percentages for specific conditions, there are people I wouldn't trust to be pilots, LE, or dog walking reddit mods.  Look up 70 and 100 percent for mental conditions which includes PTSD in 38cfr-folks need to stick to cart wrangling at Walmart.

I would love to see the methodology and adjudication processes they are using.

Ultra slippery slope though.  Odds that the next three letter agency to use it is the ATF...

Really? So a guy who gets 100% for 30% tinnitus and hearing loss but wears hearing aids, 40% for an elbow injury thats treated with cortizone injections, another 40% for bilateral knee injuries also treated with cortizone injections, another 50% for vertebre injuries in a helo crash that are manageble with nsaids and PT or any of a hundred conditions that would NOT prevent him to fly commercially and earn a living for himself and his family? So he should sit home and rot? I'm 70% disabled yet still capable to work as a helo/fixed wing mechanic for the .gov., should I be banned from working on aircraft because...what?

This is hard to wrap your head around.

Are the pilots double dipping ? If so that should show up on tax returns, yes/no ?
If these guys are disabled, how did they pass the medical ?
Payback for a pilot's strike ?
Will they still get to fly rubber dog shit out of Hong Kong ?

So many questions.

Yearing liss?

Maybe he shouldn't be flying for the majors if he's that bad.

He also must assist ever- expanding passengers and crew in an emergency, is a 50% vertebrae the right injury to hang your hat on?

Kharn

Absolutely nothing in VA disability compensation says you can't work until you are in individual unemployability.

but I suppose we're off on another VA thread, so I'll just unsubscribe for awhile

Love a good GD V.A. disability thread.

Pretty much. That's why I'm saying there seems to be a whole bunch to unpack here.

That's the point, they weren't reporting it in their FAA medical. Couple pilots in my program got letters offering them a chance to reconcile the discrepancy.

Essentially, they were claiming health issues through the VA, but not declaring the issues to the FAA.

I will withhold judgment until we hear what the conditions of concern are.  Of course we never will so I will remain skeptical that the government is doing anything good.  I'm sorry for the pilots.

While I’m not saying that it’s wrong to do so (because in any rational world clearly it wouldn’t be), I simply don’t believe that that purported rationale is anything other than yet another intentional fedgov agency lie - it is amusing to hear federal agencies pay lip service to that concept when wasting significant amounts of taxpayer dollars seems to be the ultimate raison-d’etre behind the existence of most such agencies.

Nothing.  And the politically correct term is Hippx.

I predict this thread ends up just like so:

....

You need a flight physical to be able to fly and the FAA has a right to monitor your physical condition.

Need to know.

With the advent of online medical records and data sharing systems originally created to help stop prescription medication abuse your FAA doc can now see your VA records.  (Some of this is conjecture and some is an educated guess)

Main reason I don't go to airshows is because 80 year old airframes with 80 year old pilots is no bueno.

What about the guy with 100% for PTSD with daily suicidal ideation.  Irritability with periods of unprovoked violence?

Do we really want him flying?

If they claim it on their FAA physical and are granted a waiver, cool.  But if they lie on the FAA physical, do you want them flying your plane?

AMEs aren't .gov employees, they're just regular docs who do flight physicals on behalf of the gov and either issue a medical certificate or, if you're unlucky, forward the info to gov drones in Oklahoma City who, like the ATF, sit on it for a year or two until they get around to pulling out the big red DENIED stamp.

This new partnership lets Social Security obtain the VA Veterans' health information electronically within minutes. Through this new national initiative, we can obtain Veterans' medical records electronically without human intervention. It's easy, convenient and secure, just the way we like it.Nov 9, 2016

also

Operation Safe Pilot All Over Again, But This Time FAA Cross-Checks Pilots With The VA Disability Database

Operation Safe Pilot All Over Again, But This Time FAA Cross-Checks Pilots With The VA Disability Database

   Home News - Aviation Operation Safe Pilot All Over Again, But This Time FAA Cross-Checks Pilots With The VA Disability Database

As some of you may know, the Department of Justice recently issued a Press Releaseannouncing that it had indicted four pilots for lying on their medical applications. In each case, the airman failed to disclose that he was receiving Veterans Administration (“VA”) benefits for a medical condition that would likely have either disqualified the airman from receiving a medical certificate, or would have certainly subjected the airman to additional scrutiny and/or testing requirements by the FAA’s Office of Aerospace Medicine.

The airmen were “caught” when the FAA cross-checked its database of airmen holding medical certificates with the VA’s disability benefits database. This is reminiscent of the FAA’s 2002 Operation Safe Pilot in which it performed a similar cross-check, but with the Social Security Administration’s (“SSA”) disability database. Operation Safe Pilot resulted in prosecution of forty pilots who were receiving SSA disability benefits for conditions that would have either disqualified the airmen from receiving a medical or would have triggered further inquiry by the FAA.

After Operation Safe Pilot, the FAA revised the application for medical certificate to include language that specifically authorizes it to conduct this type of cross-check with SSA and VA. When an airman signs the medical application, he or she is agreeing that the FAA can perform this type of search.

Since the DOJ Press Release was issued, I have received multiple calls from airmen who believe they may be in a similar situation, but have not yet been “discovered” or received any notice from the FAA. In each call the airman is, perhaps justifiably, concerned regarding his or her liability exposure for criminal prosecution. Fortunately, options, albeit not great options, are available provided the airman is not yet in the FAA’s cross-hairs.

Depending upon the circumstances, airmen have at least two options for dealing with the situation:

   An airman can contact the FAA via letter and disclose the previously omitted information regarding both the medical condition and the receipt of disability benefits. It is also helpful to provide an explanation for the non-disclosure, to the extent that the airman has a reasonable explanation for failing to disclose the information. This may persuade the FAA that the failure to disclose was not intentional, but merely a misunderstanding etc.; or
   The airman can apply for a new medical certificate and disclose the medical condition and receipt of benefits on the application. Then when the airman goes to his or her aviation medical examiner (“AME”) for the medical examination the airman can explain the situation to the AME.

In either instance, the airman will want to have all of his or her VA medical/disability records available to provide to the FAA. However, an airman should keep in mind that any information he or she provides to the FAA could be used against the airman in a criminal prosecution. So it is important for the airman to be very careful about what he or she says to the FAA or AME.

Although pursuing one of these two options does not guarantee that the FAA will not prosecute the airman, coming clean and correcting the record before the airman is “caught” may convince the FAA that prosecution is unnecessary. However, even if an airman is not prosecuted, it is quite likely that the FAA will follow its standard playbook and revoke all of the airman’s certificates as a sanction for falsifying the airman’s medical application(s).

If you find yourself in this situation, please call and I will be happy to help you through the process.

What a crock of shit - "irritability with periods of unprovoked violence"

That your generalized medical opinion there Doc?

Several in our city are running 100 percent VA disability, and proud of it. They even are coaching the younger ones in the reserves to run the table before they get older and separate. Several cops, firefighters, and public works guys are 100 percent disabled yet for some odd reason are able to work and function just fine. I’m guessing the same is true in the pilot world, and they just got caught due to FAA regulations.

This.


They have wanted to take vets guns for decades.


This will be the mechanism


Stack up or fuck off

Where in that article did it mention 100%? I’ll wait, hint it doesn’t .

Sounds like the perfect time to do this since we are in a massive nationwide pilot shortage.

"C'mon, let me put PTSD on your papers...it will get you a new boat payment every month, guaranteed. Not into boats? How about a new Harley? All you gotta do is let me write it down..."

A warning to all vets receiving benefits on why Centurions werent allowed to set foot in Rome, and about how they will take your guns,
made in-person by Lt. David Grossman, PhD
Professor of Psychology,  West Point during his lecture on The Bulletproof Mind"

HIPPA is a disclosure procedure. As with most government programs, it means exactly the opposite of what the name implies. HCA for instance.

Our current government = lets fuck over vets so we can give more money to illegals and Ukraine.



I don't want to hear about trying to save .gov money as long as they keep finding unlimited funds for Ukraine and illegal immigrants.


Democrat Commie government run by commies for commies.

There are cut outs for sharing certain info.

People think HIPAA is a lock on all your info.

It's not.

The VA could say something as simple as "hey, pilot A has medical disability.   Does he have a pilot license?"  And if the FAA comes back with "yep, sure does," then they can send over the pilot physical.   Pretty sure the FAA doesn't fall under HIPAA, since they're not a healthcare entity.

Having said that,  it does set the precedent for sharing more info among agencies, which can't be good.

Yep.  That was an easy one.

All VA beneficiaries are targets for abuse.

You guys who are ok with this, will you feel the same when AFT goes through medical records, and tells gun owners they are no longer allowed to own a firearm because of what they find?

If the VA/Mil/govt employee mgmt [police/FF/etc] treated disability fraud like most private companies do to weed out the liars, those with actual disabilities Mil/work related might actually have the funding to get help/treated better.

It's a game and everyone in certain professions knows it.

I damn well well will bet that bolt on's and a fake rot hole will be considered a ''disability'' in the very near future when ''alexia,'' who got that shit from the Mil medical while in, says it's causing her to not ''be well.''

Personally, I'd kick about 75-90% of EVERYONE on some kind of ''disability'' off the system. The abuse is astounding. [and I know a few and ALL of them save one is FOS about how it happened or how bad it really is]

Longtime members continue to disappoint.

It is substantially more simple than that.  Don't lie on government forms.

Um....

No, that's one of the symptoms that can get you 70% or higher disability for PTSD.

I dont want that guy being a high school teacher, much less a pilot.

People grifting should have no expectation of privacy.

Also go after the 100% disabled cops and firemen.

The government needs to weed out the SSDI scammers and Welfare fraudsters first.  

Biden Admin: We have a severe pilot shortage in America. It is harming our economy.

Biden FAA: Hold my Beer. Help is on the way Mr. President.

(Yanks 60 pilots off the job)

Evil laughs are had by all

PTSD + ATF = no guns for vets

There is that.
Automatic rejection if you get caught doing that where I come from.
The rules were probably written in stone, because that's how old they are.

And if they pass that physical the VA should pound sand.

Soon, the VA under the guise of saving tax dollars will demand all veterans with tinnitus to take the new pill to correct it.

More than likely this is what the issue is. It will be ignored and completely missed.

The jump to conclusions mat has been rolled out ITT.

Does that pill work?