Another bit of information for all you “drugs have side effects folks…”. The single best indicator of side effects is whether they occur or not. So, one approach is require a 30 day no-fly period after a pilot starts a new medication and then assess for adverse effects. If none that affect pilot skills occurred after 30 days, then they aren’t going to happen.
Mirtazapine is an old school anti-depressant (developed in the 1950s) which is commonly prescribed for sleeping disorders due to its primary side effect of drowsiness. Rarely is it prescribed for depression nowadays, but for its secondary affect. Could you imagine a pilot taking this pre-flight, not knowing these side effects? Totally agree on the restriction with a 30 day blackout to understand how the patient is affected. There are plenty of modern anti-depressants that perform better and don’t have drowsiness as a side effect. Glad this pilot is taking care of his mental health - but also glad we have governance to ensure everyone’s safety;
100 percent correct.
I read that the judge simply ordered FAA to explain its policy.
USAF allows use of a very short-acting sleep aid by a pilot who has to maintain readiness, IF tests of it by the individual show it is tolerated.
IIRC a waiting period after taking it is required before flight, perhaps four hours.
IIRC FAA allows it with a waiting period of 12 hours.
zaleplon, which is sold under various brand names, usually Sonata in the US.
Waiting period to evaluate side effects is wise.
The judicial branch is there to settle disputes plain and simple. If there is a dispute, if someone is subject to an action by the government, they have due process rights guaranteed by the Constitution. Administrative judges are part of the deep state, my friend.
They’re not doing investigative work for the defense. The law cannot be applied capriciously. The judges are asking the FAA to explain their rationale ostensibly using a scientific basis. I bet the FAA doesn’t have a scientific basis. What that means for the ultimate disposition of the case is unclear, though. The court could allow them time to come up with a scientific basis for that drug, which would probably trigger an effort to do that for all drugs or risk more court cases, or time to create a policy that allows for individualized monitoring of side effects that applies to all drugs.
The law or regulations cannot be applied capriciously, and there are Constitutional issues such as equal protection under the law. For right now, all the judges are asking is for the FAA to explain themselves. If they can do that with a straight face, then the law isn’t being applied capriciously. If they can’t - and I suspect that’s the case here - it doesn’t mean the medical is going to be approved. It could simple mean the FAA gets time to write a scientific basis for that drug and possible other drugs, too, or come up with a policy that starts with individualized monitoring for each drug.
I think the primary issue here is that all psychoactive drugs have unpredictable side effects and react very differently for different people that take them. This is not the case for Tylenol, which is about the strongest thing pilots are allowed to take. There is a REASON for this. Aggregate data seems to demonstrate that psychoactive drugs are making the mental health crisis much worse, they may even be largely responsible for it. Regardless, by your admission they have unpredictable effects that should not be permitted in the flight deck. Our goal is safety, we need people to be predictable. Someone in a mental health crisis, medicated or not, should not be flying.
Not that I want to poke it with a stick or anything, but surely what the FAA’s attitude is boils down to – We cannot have happy pilots, and
We know better than medical doctors.
I get that after German wings 9525 (some of the first responders on the scene are till traumatised 10 years on) there should be a focus on pilot mental health. Punishing pilots who are open about their health does not seem to be the best way of going about it.
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