FAA is concerned about obese pilots with OSA

A pilot in the U.S. must posses a Pilot's Certificate and a current Medical Certificate while exercising the pilot's privileges of flight. Earlier this month the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced it was planing to require pilots who have a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 40 or greater demonstrate they do not have OSA, or are being treated for it and show satisfactory results. Examples of BMI 40 are a person who is 5' 8" and weights 262 pounds, or a person who is 6' tall and weighs 294 pounds. They also announced plans to in the future reduce the cut-off at BMI 30 -- 5' 8" and 197 lbs, or 6' and 221 lbs, for example.

This created an enormous fire storm among pilot and pilot advocacy groups for various technical, legal and procedural reasons. So, the FAA has backed off somewhat, but not entirely. It still is concerned with undiagnosed or untreated OSA as it relates to flight safety and claims in excess of 90% of people with BMI 40 or greater have OSA and are subject to suddenly falling asleep. It they were piloting an aircraft, it could threaten their safety and the safety of others.

The U.S. Department of Transportation, parent group of the FAA, has already shown concerns for commercial truck and bus drivers with OSA and is planning to take some action to insure these over-the-road drivers don't have untreated OSA.

Stay tuned. This subject will be getting very interesting in 2014.

As well they should be. I didn't realize this until I read Dr Dements book, did you know a person can fall asleep with their eyes open?

Yes, I've done it.

Just more Government Hog wash in a vain attempt to appear to be doing something useful, like Homeland security. If they were to really care, instead of profiling, they would learn about sleep apnea, and regularly test for sleep apnea, drugs and booze usage, also make sure thd pilots, have some idea how to land and fly the planes they pilot.

Everyone intrusted with public transport should be tested. Even then we still will be subject to poor decisions made by others, life isn't safe, it never will be!

From the moment we are born, we are subject to harm and death, it's up to each of us to stay as safe as possible, and sometimes it's safer to stay home, nowdays that's the modd I'm in. Jim

Goofproof wrote:
From the moment we are born, we are subject to harm and death, it's up to each of us to stay as safe as possible, and sometimes it's safer to stay home, nowdays that's the modd I'm in. Jim

Actually home is one of the least safe places to be, especially the bathroom. Plus the air quality in the average home is very bad.

SleepWellCPAP wrote:As well they should be. I didn't realize this until I read Dr Dements book, did you know a person can fall asleep with their eyes open?

I'm aware that I have had dreams while my eyes were open. It was really strange as if I had two storylines going on at the same time. I could see what was really going on, yet I could see the dream at the same time. I wasn't even nodding off, yet my mind was certainly going elsewhere. Really strange.

Also, on very rare occasions, I have had my senses get mixed up. My alarm clock will go off, and instead of hearing it, my brain interprets it as blinking. Obviously, it really is beeping, and the sound woke me up. But when it happens, I am so perplexed that I will sit there and watch it "blink" and try to listen for the beeping.

BlackSpinner wrote:

Goofproof wrote:
From the moment we are born, we are subject to harm and death, it's up to each of us to stay as safe as possible, and sometimes it's safer to stay home, nowdays that's the modd I'm in. Jim

Actually home is one of the least safe places to be, especially the bathroom. Plus the air quality in the average home is very bad.

There was a story on the news this past weekend of a teenager who was shot in the face while sleeping on the couch in the living room. The bullet hit her glasses first, so the bullet stuck in her face, right between her eyes, but did not go far enough in to cause serious damage. It could have killed her. She is my co-worker's sister.