The FAA told aviation groups Thursday it will delay implementation of the new sleep apnea testing policy that was to begin in January 2014. The FAA said it will gather additional input from the aviation and medical communities.That was the Dirksen Rule* in operation. The FAA normally doesn't make changes to the details of medical standards by formal rulemaking and they weren't going to here. But the pilot groups and the aviation grassroots were gearing up to jam that one back down the FAA's throat with legislation, if they didn't back off. The FAA probably was afraid that they'd be saddled with having to go through the rulemaking process for any future tweaking of medical standards and so they changed their minds.
Word I heard was that the FAA's chief doctor is retiring anyway; there is a chance that some clown on his staff snuck this one in and then he got stuck with having to defend an ill-considered policy. The top brass at the FAA was likely more than happy to throw him under the bus.
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* "I see the light when I feel the heat."
Sorry, but as an experienced sleep apnea sufferer, I disagree strongly. Here's why:
ReplyDelete1. I most cases, the symptoms and effects of sleep apnea can be completely negated with the use of a $300-or-so appliance called a CPAP machine.
2. Having been diagnosed with sleep apnea and then equipped with one of these machines, I can personally testify to the vastly improved quality of sleep (as evidenced by the substantially reduced likelihood of, say, dozing off at my desk or in the movies.)
Sleep apnea is a simple problem. It's usually cheap to fix, and usually without surgery. I can save from one to several hundred lives, depending who's iin the airplane and who's on the ground where it crashes. What's the friggin' hangup with a rule to diagnose it and demand that be treated?
Very Crankily Yours,
The New York Crank
I concede that "consulting the medical community" is a good idea on this or any medical issue.
ReplyDeleteHowever, a DOT physical often requires screening for sleep apnea. There are complicated criteria that I don't completely understand and can't find a link that explains well. To drive commercially, you've got to pass a DOT physical. Why should a trucker or taxi driver be held to a higher physical standard than a pilot?
http://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/safety-security/sleep-apnea/industry/commercial-drivers.aspx