Officials with the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) report they have been working with the FAA to ensure that pilots who are dealing with medical and mental health issues are able to continue flying — as long as it’s safe.
“In conversations with our members about this, it’s very clear that folks are really struggling with these issues,” said Mark Larsen, NBAA director of safety and flight operations. “They want to feel like they can get help and, and thankfully, we’re in a position to say you can get help and it’s likely not going to be career-ending.”
The FAA has taken several steps to ease mental health barriers for pilots in the past 12 months, such as approving the antidepressant medication Wellbutrin for pilots.
“We suggested that the FAA take a closer look at it,” Larsen said. “This is one that people are asking a lot of questions about on pilot forums, as they’re having good results with it.”
“It’s progress, right?” he added. “If we can do it safely, why would we keep these folks on the ground?”
The FAA also said it would stop requiring pilots who are on approved antidepressants to undergo annual neurocognitive follow-up exams.
“It used to be that you had to do an initial neurocognitive assessment and then you would have to go repeat that assessment annually as long as you were on the antidepressant,” Larsen said, adding those tests are expensive, often $3,000 to $4,000.
“That’s a lot of money adding up,” he said. “So that got us thinking: How many of these neurocognitive follow-up exams are telling the patient and the FAA something that they didn’t find out the first time?’”
The FAA reviewed that requirement and decided to drop it in late 2022, he noted.
If the FAA puts up too many barriers for pilots wrestling with medical and mental health issues, it can backfire, according to Larsen. He noted a Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine study last year found that 56.1% of pilots reported avoiding health care for fear of being grounded.
“There are some medical and mental health conditions that warrant a further look by the FAA,” Larsen said. “But, by the same token, when pilots are aware of the kind of things that they’re up against in order to get treatment, we’re seeing a lot of hesitancy to then pursue treatment.”
FAA Federal Air Surgeon Dr. Susan Northrup has said the agency is working to reduce mental health barriers, and Larsen credited the agency with evolving on the issue.
Dr. Quay Snyder, president, CEO and co-founder of Aviation Medicine Advisory Service, agreed, noting that Northrup “has demonstrated a full commitment to recognizing mental wellness as a critical element of aviation safety and optimizing performance.”
He added the FAA is hiring more psychiatrists and neuropsychologists to shorten the review times of medical certificate holders’ mental health conditions, among some of the other changes at the agency.
10 years since I was grounded, and I’ve moved on. I am so glad I’m not a part of this stupid industry anymore.
the FAA has no over site or body of government they must answer to. Therefore they can just randomly make decisions which affect airman’s (pilots) livelihood and passions without regard to air safety. I have known many GA pilots who have been denied their medical simply because of age. These airman are the pillars of Flying and have neither the time or the money to fight against the FAA.