The U.S. Office of Special Counsel said Thursday it has notified the president and Congress of a whistleblower disclosure involving delays in FAA medical certificate reviews. It said the agency took corrective action but that OSC did not agree with the FAA’s conclusion that the allegations were unsubstantiated.
According to OSC’s May 21 letter, the whistleblower, an FAA medical officer, alleged that understaffing in the FAA Office of Aerospace Medicine delayed the agency’s review of medical certificates that had already been issued by aviation medical examiners. In 2023, AMEs issued 445,613 medical certificates to airline transport pilots, commercial pilots and private pilots, while FAA medical officers were only required to review fewer than 600 of those issued certificates, according to OSC.
letter-to-president-di-24-000224_redactedDownload
According to OSC, 479 of those issued certificates were sent to the FAA Office of Chief Counsel for possible revocation after AAM did not resolve the flagged cases within the FAA’s 60-day post-issuance review window. OSC said the whistleblower alleged that the delays also left about 1,200 airmen holding medical certificates who may not have been qualified to fly.
“In light of these facts, OSC does not find the agency’s conclusions regarding the lack of safety risks appear reasonable, but we appreciate that the agency prioritized corrective actions to greatly increase staffing and efficiency in AAM to nonetheless...
CHICAGO — Salah Sarsour, president of the Islamic Society of Milwaukee, is fighting deportation in a Chicago hearing after being accused of lying on immigration paperwork and supporting terrorism....