This is why I think Kirsch's comments need to be considered carefully and why he's going for shock headlines.
Kirsch wrote:
"The FAA has very quietly (emphasis added) tacitly admitted that the EKGs of pilots are no longer normal.
and:
"...the FAA quietly widened (emphasis added)... "
"On October 24, 2022, the FAA quietly, without any announcement at all (emphasis added)..."
and"
"And why did they do that quietly without notifying the public (emphasis added) or the mainstream media?"
and:
"They were quiet about it (emphasis added)"
and:
"...and the FAA quietly changed (emphasis added) their EKG guidance..."
Except it was not quiet.
It was posted to a public web-site. Where people check those things. Including flight surgeons and other people involved with aircrew health.
Update Schedule for the Guide for Aviation Medical Examiners
It LISTS the date and time that the updates will be made.
and the list of changes are also posted - see AME Guide Archives Kirsch is trying to claim quietly to hawk his claims. That's acting in bad faith. Which he is apparently good at.
Reply to post 109.
I just went back and watched the part of the video (starting around 34 minutes) where they discuss the FAA and pilots, and you are correct. It wasn’t hidden or done on the sly. It is their normal process for updates. There are some updates that AMEs are required to read when we log in to the AMCS website... before we a proceed, but that only happens for things they consider critical. It is up to AMEs to regularly check for changes though. As you. pointed out, anyone can look at the guidelines. The AME guide does not give the whole picture on airmen certification, since many decisions have to be made by staff physicians or panels of consulting specialty physicians, but it is a lot better than it was 20 years ago.
I’ll just add a few things. They are correct that the EKG is a minimal way of screening, since it does not predict future events.
While it is possible that pilot will not be issued a medical based on something discovered at the time of their FAA medical exam, it ALMOST all cases, it is because of something that has occurred prior to the visit. It could be a medication they are on that is not allowed (almost any psych drug), a past medical condition they experienced or an ongoing medical condition that a person is being treated for.
The most common condition that are discovered at the time of the exam, in my experience, are (in order of frequency) diabetes/high blood sugar and high blood pressure. I can only think of a couple of times in the past 30 years that the EKG warranted deferral.
The cardiologist threw out some numbers about increased risk of death in those with increased PR interval (aka heart blocks). I’m not a cardiologist and I am not familiar with his source, but I suspect those numbers were relative risk increase. While the numbers he gave could be totally true, you need to know what the absolute risk is. The increase of risk from 1 per 1 million to 2 per 1 million is a 100% increase, but is it some thing I would worry about? I really don’t know what the risk is, that is just an example.
The FAA is charged with keeping the airway, safe. They are an administrative arm of our government, but decisions made are balanced on medical as well as political concerns. This is obvious when you consider the rules regarding age of retirement, and also in what is and is not required for an aviation medical exam. They know that, we know that. Any decision or regulation the FAA makes has to be balanced between air safety, pilots rights under our system, and the economic impact that the decision might have on air transportation and cargo, to name a few.