Aviation Medical "Fraud"

Larry Dighera wrote:
How is it that airmen are able to hide their medical conditions from
the licensed medical doctor examining them, but not from Congress?

Obviously they can't. The airmen were either:

1) Committing fraud against the Social Security Administration,
2) Committing fraud against the Federal Aviation Administration,
3) Neither of the above.

There are too many problems with the committee's report[1] that it is
difficult to know where to start. Here's an attempt:

A) Claiming that after examining the records of 40,000 airmen (over 6%
of all airmen), the 45 that they _charged_ with fraud (about 0.1%)
constitutes a "widespread" problem. Looks like 99.9% compliance to me.

B) Confusing "charged" with "convicted".

C) Assumes case (2) above rather than (1) but fails to give the reasons
to prefer one over the other.

D) Assumes incorrectly that post-mortem results are reliable indicators
of fraud rather than, say, simple oversights or honest mistakes.

E) Assumes incorrectly that the post-mortem drug results numbers can be
extrapolated. Such an extrapolation is valid only if those who are
medically unfit are just as likely to crash as healthy pilots. But of
course if that were the case then there would be no safety value in
denying unhealthy pilots from flying! So if the rate of accidents of
unfit pilots is presumed to be an unknown amount greater than that of
fit pilots (e.g. 1000 times higher) then, for example, if 10% of fatal
accidents appear to involve unfit pilots then only 0.01% of all pilots
are unfit - not 10% of all pilots!

F) After introducing the ~0.1% number that were charged with fraud, then
discards it and uses the incorrectly extrapolated ~10% number to claim
"wide spread" fraud. Under what definition, outside of the rhetorical
and political realm, is 99.9% or even 90% compliance considered evidence
of widespread non-compliance?

G) One of the "unclear on the concept" recommendations is to require
pilots to state whether or not they are receiving medical disability
benefits. If the applicant was willing to lie about other aspects then
why does anyone think the applicant would suddenly find honesty with
that requirement?

[1] http://transportation.house.gov/Medi...e%20Report.pdf

Recently, Jim Logajan posted:

Larry Dighera wrote:
How is it that airmen are able to hide their medical conditions from
the licensed medical doctor examining them, but not from Congress?

Obviously they can't. The airmen were either:

1) Committing fraud against the Social Security Administration,
2) Committing fraud against the Federal Aviation Administration,
3) Neither of the above.

There are too many problems with the committee's report[1] that it is
difficult to know where to start. Here's an attempt:

(rest of this excellent analysis snipped for brevity)

It constantly amazes me how a committee charged with oversight can deliver
published reports with such elementary errors, numerous misstatements and
erroneous conclusions. And then I recall the notion that "people usually
get the government they deserve" and find it a really depressing
situation.

Neil

Larry Dighera wrote:


How is it that airmen are able to hide their medical conditions from
the licensed medical doctor examining them, but not from Congress?




"I don't recall".....

--
Frank....H

"Larry Dighera" wrote in message
news

How is it that airmen are able to hide their medical conditions from
the licensed medical doctor examining them, but not from Congress?

I read in my AOPA newsletter about this. It says about 40 people in
California are being procecuted for this. Anybody know what penalties these
guys are facing? I would think if you own your own plane, flying without a
medical might be lower risk than lying on the medical form. Can you go to
jail for flying without a medical? I think jail time for lying on the
medical is very possible.

Danny Deger




-------------------------------------------------------------------
AVwebALERT News Alert -- March 27, 2007
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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.

"Danny Deger" wrote in message
...

Anybody know what penalties these guys are facing? I would think if you
own your own plane, flying without a medical might be lower risk than
lying on the medical form. Can you go to jail for flying without a
medical? I think jail time for lying on the medical is very possible.


I have no idea what they can/will do for lying on the medical.

As far as I know, the worst they can do for flying without a medical is yank
your ticket.

I've heard flying without a ticket can earn you a trip to the big house too.

Steve Foley wrote:

I have no idea what they can/will do for lying on the medical.

If I remember correctly, it is spelled out on the form itself; always
read the fine prints! (including the ones that say that you are under
no obligation to provide the FAA with a SSN but I digress)

--Sylvain

On Fri, 30 Mar 2007 12:33:05 -0700, "Danny Deger"
wrote in
:

Anybody know what penalties these guys are facing?



On Wed, 28 Mar 2007 08:48:00 -0500, "Gig 601XL Builder"
wrDOTgiaconaATsuddenlink.net wrote in
:

Per FAR 67.403, "Falsification of the airman medical application
form 8500-8 may result in adverse action including fines up to
$250,000, imprisonment up to 5 years and revocation of medical and
all pilot certificates."