Opinion ID: 774537
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Medical Exemptions For Disqualified Pilots Under Sixty

Text: 15 While the petitioners acknowledge that the age sixty pilots who have flown in this country have not done so pursuant to exemptions similar to the type that is being requested here, they nonetheless assert that the FAA has an inconsistent standard for granting exemptions. In support, petitioners submit that the FAA grants special issuance exemptions to pilots under sixty with a wide array of demonstrable, progressive, and otherwise disqualifying diseases, subject to periodic monitoring, 14 C.F.R. sec. 67.401, while denying exemptions to age sixty pilots with no known diseases because of a professed fear of unknown or subtle and undetectable defects. For example, petitioners note that the FAA will forbid an apparently healthy pilot over the age of sixty to fly because of the risk that he or she might have a first heart attack while, at the same time, allow a younger pilot to fly in spite of the higher statistical risk that he or she might suffer a second heart attack. Not only is such a decision arbitrary and capricious, according to the petitioners, but it calls into question the veracity of the agency's proffered explanation for grounding pilots over sixty--for if the FAA is able to adequately monitor the health of those under sixty with known medical conditions, then surely the agency could monitor those healthy pilots who have reached the age of sixty. 16 This is not the first time that pilots have presented this exact argument to this court. In 1978, we rejected this argument. See Starr, 589 F.2d at 313. In 1990, we rejected this argument. See Baker, 917 F.2d at 322. The fact that petitioners have sought to reintroduce it in the year 2001 has not added any validity to the contention. 4 First, as we noted in Starr, just because the FAA may have established more lax exemption policies for one set of circumstances does not require such a policy in other circumstances. [E]ven if those more liberal exemption policies were found to be unsafe, that does not justify introduction of another program which the FAA's own experts consider unsafe. Starr, 589 F.2d at 313. A policy of exemptions is intended to provide an administrator with flexibility. To mandate that the FAA is required to give exemptions to age sixty pilots simply be cause it grants exemptions to pilots under sixty with known medical conditions would be to completely cabin the FAA's discretion--forcing the agency to either grant every exemption or never grant an exemption. 17 Yet more importantly, the FAA has provided a rationale for its decision to grant exemptions to younger pilots with known medical conditions. When a special issuance medical certificate is granted, the condition in question has been clearly identified, and the agency has been able to develop a means of assessment and surveillance specially designed to demonstrate the individual's capabilities and to identify any adverse changes. 60 Fed. Reg. 65,984. However, the more subtle forms of physical and mental decline that may accompany aging often cannot be detected, let alone monitored or controlled. While we may not find this distinction convincing in all respects, see Baker, 917 F.2d at 322, the difference between the two groups is adequate to warrant the distinction that the FAA has drawn, and to preclude a finding that the FAA is acting arbitrarily and capriciously in this regard. See Professional Pilots Fed'n, 118 F.3d at 767.