The 78-year-old pilot was flying a Cessna 150 near Deming, N.M., when he reported to ATC that he was “in trouble,” experiencing severe pain and losing his eyesight.
Radar contact was lost shortly afterward. The pilot had been issued a limited third class medical certificate due to elevated blood pressure.
Toxicology testing revealed the presence of irbesartan, which is used mainly for treating hypertension. Although the cause of death was attributed to blunt force trauma, the heart exhibited significant preexisting coronary artery disease with up to 75% occlusion in a number of vessels.
The wreckage was consistent with an in-flight breakup. Therefore, the evidence is consistent with the pilot most likely suffering an acute coronary syndrome, which incapacitated him and caused him to lose control of the airplane.
Investigators determined that during the loss of control, the airframe was overstressed, which caused it to break up in flight.
The NTSB determined the probable cause was the pilot’s physical incapacitation, including loss of vision, which led to a loss of control and the subsequent in-flight breakup of the airplane.
NTSB Identification: CEN13LA179
This February 2013 accident report is provided by the National Transportation Safety Board. Published as an educational tool, it is intended to help pilots learn from the misfortunes of others.
@Mike. I am sure you will say that my figure of 20 deaths per year from medical incapacitation is low, due to the 3rd class medical having eliminated unfit pilots. I don’t doubt that is true. Yet aviation medical incapacitation, especially sudden death as cited in this article, is extremely rare. You could probably count the number on one hand per year. Much of medical impairment is from alcohol and drugs, which a medical won’t stop. There is no fix for stupid, as they say. Also, the LSA pilot population, which is almost entirely composed of older pilots flying without a medical, is having a good safety record. In fact, there is a bias working against them. LSA aircraft are often uncertified, home built, flimsy and unstable. Quite arguably they are less safe than the familiar GA aircraft. So why force them into those? But My overriding argument is that we are singled out for an overly stringent medical standard, unlike any other activity. And where those activities have far larger casualties.
Let us not forget that in the early days of the airlines all Flight Attendants were required to be Nurses in order to help passengers deal with the stresses of flying. We have revised that thinking somewhat. I am not sure when the whole scheme of pilot medical certification came about but I would guess it dates back to the days when pilots were considered to be the best and brightest and had to endure conditions that mere mortals would never know. That attitude has changed somewhat today but we still have this antiquated system of medical certification for non-commercial pilots that appears to get more complicated and restrictive every day (now it is BMI and Obstructive Sleep Apnea). The whole structure of the FAA needs to get a serious reset to bring it inline with what we know today about pilots and aircraft. Not Airliners and their crews do both need to undergo a reasolable amount of certification but that should not be applied to anywhere the same degree to the rest of aviation. The Ultra Lights do just fine without certification and the LSA’s do fine with their modernized approach to certification and pilot licensing, it is time to expand those experiments.
@mike You seem as though you think EVERY measure must be taken to assure perfect safety from medical impairment. Let’s see where that leads. In all of GA, currently there are about 400 deaths a year. What percent are due to medical impairment? It is certainly very small, say 5 percent. That would amount to 20 deaths per year in GA from medical impairment. That is less than the number killed by lightning per year. Now consider that there are some 35,000 death a year from driving cars, 4500 per year from motorcycles, 700 from boating accidents, and many other activities with death totals far higher than ALL of GA. None of those activities have a medical requirement at all, nor have ongoing bureaucratic oversight. Yet we aviators have a major federal bureaucracy (The Aero Medical Division of the FAA) basically policing 20 deaths per year. Does this not seem a bit out of proportion? It does to me. So, you say something like “If just one life is saved, it is worth it”. That is a fallacy. In truth we, as a society, don’t live that way. If we did, to be consistent, we would have to give up driving and a myriad of other activities. But we are not willing to do that, either individually or as a society. No, what is proper is a REASONABLE balance between freedom and safety. The trouble is, that single mission bureaucracies seldom make reasonable tradeoffs between benefit and cost ( the cost in this case is freedom). The 3rd class medical for light plane recreational pilots fails that test.
All of these anti-FAA posts are based on logical fallacies. To prove the FAA medical system doesn’t work, you don’t have to show one failure. If that were the case, murder laws are in effective as well and should be scrapped. In order to prove they are ineffectual you have to show that they don’t ever prevent anyone who is unhealthy from flying. And they clearly do.
A third class Medical will not keep you from having an accident.But pre-flighting your self and your aircraft will cut down on the chances that you will.Pilots that have High Blood Pressure should take their medicine on time,and check their Blood Pressure before flight.Than have a great flight,amen.
Wow we actually have a case of a pilot being medically incapicated in flight and he even had a 3rd class medical. Shows how much good that piece of paper did in ensuring the safety of the non-flying public. And the same thing has happened on several occasions to pilots with 1st class medicals as they cruised the sky’s in their airliners packed full of people and cargo. All that proves is that at the moment the medical was issued the pilot was alive and in an acceptable state of health, after that it is just a crap shoot. Every pilot self certifies every time they get in an airplane and all the pointless FAA medical certificates are barly worth the paper they are printed on. It is time the 3rd class is eliminated and common sense is allowed to dictate when we are capable of flight.
Sarah, you are so right on target. The problem with the medical requirements is that no one looks at the ego issue the pilot has. Take for instance the private pilot who choses to maintain a 3 class medical. Well he flies when the weather is fit for him and he alone decides if his health is in good order. Now take the pilot who flies for a living most or part time. He passed the medical requirements, but still is responsible for to evaluate whether he is fit that day to fly. But then the boss or his customer says I must get to XYZ now or else. What does he do? He may cower done and try to fly the mission or flatly refuse the flight. Now, take the airline pilot who job it is to bid and a fly the 15-20 hours per month as his seniority lends itself. He can and should make those conscious decisions whether his health is good enough for work or not. But as we get older not all of us get smarter as the ego and age creeps into the formula. Take the 74 year old pilot who puts together a Mustang ill equipped as he was health wise and doesn’t consider safety factors and good judgment for flight in a racing event and kills not only himself but many on lookers and causes massive injuries for those on the ground later. I worked for a manufacturer and we lost a test pilot who should not have been flying that day, and died after passing out from high blood pressure. His group was under pressure due to delays that month due to the weather to meet schedule for production. He had worked all weekend from the previous weeks overtime and his manager didn’t note the fatigue generated by concern the company placed on the flt test dept to get the aircraft delivered. One must remain vigilant as to who one answers to and who you owe allegiance to.
Good points on your side as well. The FAA has no certification for the common sense that applies to the decision process for determining if you are mentally and physically (not medically) fit to undertake a flight. Taking off when you are exhausted can be just as deadly as taking off when you should be at your doctors office instead. These are the decisions that we pilots are constantly faced with and to insist that the only the FAA can determine our nedical fitness is rediculus. Many of the conditions that ground you with the FAA are not really going to make you unfit to fly. Take for instance a diagnosis of cancer, any cancer being an instant grounding. It is true that at some points in the treatment you are not going to be fit to fly and that should be the pilots decision in consultation with their own doctors. Many people have very few (if any) symptoms when diagnosed so how is it that they suddenly are unfit to fly in the afternoon when they were fit to fly before they went to the doctor and got the diagnosis. And why do they have to prove that they are in full remission and have not required treatment for a long period of time before they can begin the long and difficult process of getting back their 3rd class medical certificate. This is just a few examples of how stupid the continuance of the 3rd class medical is. The myth of the pilot being a super-man in perfect physical condition has long since been debunked.
Incredibly, drivers pass cars and transport trucks heading in the opposite direction, closing in on each other 120+ mph only inches away. Where’s their stringent medical?
NEW FAA 3RD CLASS MEDICAL: You must now prove that you cannot have a heart attacl while in-flight. If you are prone to having heart attacks in-flight you must carry a safety pilot and said pilot must be in the right seat and you must fly with a defrib attached to your chest. The defrib must be an STC’d device.
Good thing he had a 3rd class physical. Sorry he crashed & died but this goes to show you the lack of value of a third class physical as a predictor of future ability to perform.
Exactly! Third class medical did him no good at all. A waste of time and money.
Actually it does no such thing. It shows that it failed in this particular case. You can’t prove a negative. It is not possible to show how many lives HAVE been saved by denying unhealthy pilots the right to fly. If anything this shows that the 3rd class should be stricter, not more lenient.
Not exactly when you consider that those who know they would be denied can wisely stay away from the AME and fly in the LSA catagory. To date this catagory has operated quite safely without the benifit of a 3rd class medical using state requirements for retaining a drivers license. That shows that elimination of the 3rd class can work since it would seem that few of the pilots flying LSA (myself included) are in that catagory by choice. The point to take away is that no medical certificate can accurately predict the probability of future incapicitation as exampled by instances of airline pilots dying at the controls and they face the most rigid screenings. It is up to the pilot to evaluate their medical condition before EVERY flight and those flying in a non commercial environment face the least pressure to fly regardless of their current medical situation. It is time that we take the experiences we have gained from the LSA catagory and move on to the logical conclusion of expanding the pool of pilots that are exempted from the onerous requirements of FAA medical certification.
Keep in mind that the LSA pilots (and those in the proposed extensions of such privlidges) are not totally without some medical restrictions due to the requirement for a valid state drivers license. That does require an individual to have reasonable vision and be free from certain disqualifing medical conditions. An aquaintance of mine experienced a sezure one day while driving home that lead to a minor traffic incident and his hospitalization. His drivers license was immediately suspended and he would have to prove proper treatment of whatever condition caused the incident before he could get his drivers license privlidges back. So obviously if he was a pilot that grounded him and there are plenty of other medical conditions that would bring about the same suspension of driving/flying privlidges. LSA has proven that it can work and it is time to accept that and move to the next logical step of expanded privlidges.
My response would be, how many pilots are flying LSA? Not many. That and some states give out driver’s licenses now for 20 years. I can already tell you what’s going to happen if this passes: the first time a pilot crashes due to a medical situation (and that WILL happen) we will get crushed with medical regulations that will make the 3rd class look like a joke.
Also, this keeps getting repeated:
“The point to take away is that no medical certificate can accurately predict the probability of future incapicitation as exampled by instances of airline pilots dying at the controls and they face the most rigid screenings.”
First of all it shows no such thing; it shows that a medical exam can’t be predictive of incapacitation EVERY TIME. In order for you to prove the point you’re trying to make, you would have to show that no aviation medical exam has EVER kept a pilot from flying who would likely have had a medical event. Obviously that’s complete nonsense, and furthermore, even if it were true, you couldn’t prove it anyway as you can’t prove a negative. These arguments are based on logical fallacies: “one pilot passed out, therefore medical exams are unnecessary and ineffectual.” Ok, then so are murder laws, drunk driving laws, rape laws – get rid of them all. That’s what you’re arguing.