Dr. Brett Wyrick, Deputy Federal Air Surgeon at the FAA has been presented with the Office of Special Counsel’s 2026 Outstanding Public Servant Award for his efforts as a whistleblower.
Special Counsel Charles Baldis formally presented the award which was announced in July 30, 2026, National Whistleblower Day.
“Dr. Wyrick saw a risk to the people who fly, and to the people who keep them safe in the air, and he would not look past it,” Baldis said. “As Deputy Federal Air Surgeon, he identified that medical officers in the FAA’s Office of Aerospace Medicine were too few for the work before them. Certificates and clearances for pilots and air traffic controllers were falling behind. Hundreds of airmen continued flying while flagged medical issues had not been fully reviewed. Some personnel were discouraged from reporting an illness, injury, or new medication because a report could ground them for months. New controllers, hired to ease shortages in the towers, were waiting on medical clearances that should not have taken so long.
“He put that warning on the record because safety in the national airspace is not an internal matter. It belongs to everyone who boards a plane, and to the families waiting for them on the ground. His disclosure moved the FAA to hire additional medical officers and to clear these cases with more care and more speed. Those changes made a real difference....
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