According to a Summary by the Department of Transportation Office of Inspector General (“OIG”), a pilot has been sentenced to 12 months of probation and payment of a $1,000 fine for falsifying 5 FAA medical certificate applications. According to the OIG, the pilot admitted that he failed to report that he suffered from insomnia, depression, poor concentration, anxiety, fatigue and memory difficulties (conditions that may individually, or most certainly all together, would have disqualified the pilot from being issued a medical certificate). Apparently the pilot was receiving disability benefits from both the Social Security Administration (“SSA”) and the Department of Veterans Affairs (“VA”) based upon a psychiatric diagnosis, which led to discovery by the FAA.
Seems like a light sentence considering that the pilot omitted the disability information on 5 consecutive applications. However, the pilot’s airman certificates were also almost certainly revoked long before the pilot’s sentencing. Additionally, although the summary doesn’t disclose whether this pilot was discovered during the Operation Safe Pilot investigation, my guess is that this pilot was one of the 40 pilot prosecuted after the FAA and SSA compared their databases during that investigation. Of course, with the consent to share information among agencies provided in the new medical application Form 8500-8 GG, rather than the previous “FF” version, the FAA no longer needs to conduct such an investigation. Rather, it can simply cross-check information with the SSA and VA as needed.
