The FAA says it\u2019s 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 [airline transport pilots], 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 \u201cposed a clear danger to aviation safety.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lehner said most of those under review have nothing to worry about. \u201cThe 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,\u201d Lehner said in a statement to the Post. \u201cThe vast majority of these pilots may continue to operate safely while we complete the reconciliation process.\u201d Some have been told to fix the paperwork submitted with their medicals while others have to get fresh medicals.<\/p>\n
For its part the VA is trying to weed out fraudulent claims while also protecting public safety. \u201cGiven 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,\u201d Department of Veterans Affairs Inspector General Michael Missal said in a statement. \u201cWe will continue to work with VA and other stakeholders to ensure the integrity of the benefits and services reserved for our nation\u2019s veterans.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The argument here is that those receiving VA compensation (and thus, as we all know, have definitively proven their disabilities through rigorous vetting by the VA….) should have their civilian FAA airman’s medical fitness called into question. If there’s a discrepancy in what you’ve reported to the two arms of Big Brother, well….that’s a paddlin’.<\/p>\n
On the one hand, if someone is getting 100% disability for conditions that would preclude the safe handling of aircraft, I don’t really want them to be flying. On the other hand, neither the FAA or the VA (especially the latter) are known for their bureaucratic excellence. It certainly seems like the FAA is specifically targeting veterans based on their receiving benefits that they\u00a0earned<\/em>. It makes one think twice before filing for those benefits, doesn’t it?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Something I’ve been following in civil aviation news circles is that the FAA and VA have … US Gov finding new ways to f-ck veterans<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":664,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[220,213,238,226,143],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-146602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-floggings-will-continue-until-morale-improves","category-your-tax-dollars-at-work","category-government-incompetence","category-veterans-in-the-news","category-veterans-affairs-department"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146602","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/664"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=146602"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146602\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=146602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=146602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=146602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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