Special docs to monitor pilots’ health

The Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry plans to require airline companies to employ doctors who specialize in managing pilots’ health.


The ministry has judged it necessary to create a system in which doctors with knowledge of aeronautic medicine regularly examine pilots’ mental and physical health. It was prompted by such problems as pilots being overworked due to insufficient personnel, and the German airplane crash caused by its co-pilot in spring last year.

The ministry’s policy will apply to about 20 airline companies based in Japan. It aims to implement the policy this fiscal year.

According to the transport ministry, each airline company currently employs an industrial physician in keeping with the Industrial Safety and Health Law. Also, special outside doctors from medical organizations designated by the government examine pilots’ mental and physical health once every six months or a year based on the Civil Aeronautics Law.

However, the industrial physicians examine all the airlines’ staff and in many cases the physicians work part-time. Under the circumstances, “Pilots’ health conditions may not be properly ascertained,” a relevant ministry official said.

There have not been enough pilots in recent years, for such reasons as low-cost carriers expanding their routes, and pilots’ work hours are becoming too tight. There are currently about 6,000 pilots in Japan, but about 7,000 are expected to be necessary in 2022.

France’s air accident investigation agency published its final report in March about the crash of a plane belonging to Lufthansa’s Germanwings budget airline in France in March last year. According to the report, the co-pilot, who had been diagnosed with depression, intentionally crashed the plane.

The ministry started discussions on the formulation of health management standards for pilots last autumn. According to the standards compiled at the end of March and at the advice of experts, the doctors to be provided by airlines will be called “crew members’ health administration doctor.” They will be obliged to attend ministry seminars related to aeronautic medicine.

The seminars are intended to deepen doctors’ understanding about how chronic conditions affect pilots’ work in the sky and what kind of medicines are restricted while they’re flying. Industrial physicians will also be allowed to work as health administration doctors, and can work full-time or part-time.

According to the standards, the doctors are expected to interview pilots and check their health regularly. If they believe a pilot’s condition might hinder his or her work, they must promptly inform the airline.

The standards also call for airlines to create a system in which such pilots cannot fly a plane. The number of doctors and how often they conduct their interviews and examinations will be left to the discretion of each airline.

(culled from the-japan-news.com)