Twelve percent of pilots and air traffic controllers admit underreporting the severity of their medical conditions, and 50 percent of established pilots said they knew colleagues who had underreported medical information, according to a study of more than 1,600 Norwegian pilots and air traffic controllers.
A report on the study, which was based on survey responses by pilots and controllers who underwent aeromedical examinations in the five years preceding Dec. 2, 2019, was published in the April issue of Aerospace Medicine and Human Performance.1
“Medical certification can be regarded as an important factor for the prevention of aircraft accidents,” the report said. “Underreporting of medical conditions could be significant in aviation.”
The report noted estimates that human error has a role in 70 to 80 percent of all accidents and that medical factors are the root cause of about 4.7 percent of all accidents; in addition, medical c…
