FAA Amends Mental Health Evaluation Criteria for Pilots

The FAA has revised its mental health guidance to AMEs. [FLYING File photo]

A history of no more than two mental health diagnoses no longer requires automatic review by the FAA for any class of pilot certificate as long as certain criteria are met.

The agency has revised its guidance to aviation medical examiners (AMEs) on “uncomplicated anxiety, depression and related conditions” and chief among the changes is that the FAA can be left out of the process if the pilot has been off medication for two years, there are no issues raised by a questionnaire and the AME has no concerns.

The questionnaire deals with serious mental health issues like suicidal thoughts, self-harm and whether or not the pilot has been hospitalized or been under court-ordered evaluation, and it reminds the AME to be thorough and conservative in his or her judgment.

“If ALL items fall into the ‘NO’/CLEAR COLUMN, the AME may issue with notes in Block 60 which show the AME discussed the history of Uncomplicated Anxiety, Depression, and Related Conditions, found no positives to the screening questions, AND had no concerns,” the new guidance reads. “If ANY SINGLE ITEM falls into the ‘YES’/SHADED COLUMN, the AME MUST DEFER” (emphasis the FAA’s).

Editor’s Note: This article first appeared on AVweb.

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Russ NilesContributor

Russ Niles has been a journalist for 40 years, a pilot for 30 years and joined AVweb in 2003. When he’s not writing about airplanes he and his wife Marni run a small winery in British Columbia’s Okanagan Valley.