AVIATION SAFETY: FAA IS CONSIDERING CHANGES TO AVIATION MEDICAL STANDARDS

This Fact Sheet reports on the nature and status of proposed revisions to the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA's) medical standards. In 1982, FAA announced a major rulemaking effort to revise the aviation medical standards. As part of the review process, FAA contracted with the American Medical Association (AMA) in 1983 to study the standards and recommend any needed changes. In March 1986, the AMA provided FAA with its report. Changes under consideration by the Office of Aviation Medicine are based primarily on the results of the AMA report and are designed to bring regulatory medical standards up to date with advances in medical knowledge and technology. Although FAA's Office of Aviation Medicine anticipates FAA Administrator approval of its proposed changes to the medical standards by March 1990, a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking will not be published in the Federal Register until June 1990, at the earliest. In addition, since this is a major rulemaking effort, FAA plans a 120-day comment period and estimates that the final rule will not be issued until 1991. Section 1 of this fact sheet provides summary information on changes currently under consideration. Section 2 is a chronology of events in the development of the changes.

• Record URL:
  • http://www.gao.gov/docdblite/summary.php?recflag=&rptno=RCED-90-68FS
• Supplemental Notes:
  • Fact Sheet for Congressional Requesters.
• Corporate Authors:

  U.S. General Accounting Office

  441 G Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20548
• Publication Date: 1990-1

Media Info

• Features: Appendices;
• Pagination: 11 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Air navigators; Air pilots; Airline pilots; Flight personnel; Proposals
• Identifier Terms: U.S. Federal Aviation Administration
• Uncontrolled Terms: Flight engineers; Medical standards; Revisions
• Old TRIS Terms: Flight navigators
• Subject Areas: Administration and Management; Aviation; Highways; Research; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00491214
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: GAO/RCED-90-68FS
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Feb 28 1990 12:00AM