Failing to disclose VA disability benefits on your FAA medical application could potentially be a big problem for you and your airman certificate. The sanction for providing an incorrect answer or providing an intentionally false answer to 18y. on FAA Form 8500-9 (the FAA airman medical application) with respect to your VA disability benefits is revocation of all airman certificates. The sanction of revocation of all airman certificates means that the FAA will revoke an airman’s medical certificate, pilot certificates and type ratings, and any other certificates held by the airman (i.e. A&P certificate). A revocation typically allows for reapplication in a 12-month period (meaning that the airman must reapply as a student pilot 12-months after the date of revocation). However, a recent trend for failing to disclose VA disability benefits on your FAA medical application includes criminal referral and indictment for violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1001. This was the unfortunate case recently for four airmen in the San Francisco Bay area, who were indicted for failing to disclose that they were receiving VA disability benefits on their FAA medical applications.
If you’ve found yourself in the position of having failed to disclose your receipt of VA disability benefits on your FAA medical application, you may be able to remediate the concern for intentional falsification and/or criminal prosecution if you take action immediately. Typically, but not in all cases, the FAA has a policy of amnesty if an airman discloses an omission before it is discovered by the FAA or an investigation is started by the Department of Transportation Office of Inspector General or Veteran’s Affairs Office of Inspector General. In each case where an airman has failed to disclose receiving VA benefits on their medical application, however, it is imperative that disclosure is done promptly, but in a calculated manner. Disclosure may elicit reexamination from the FAA’s Office of Aerospace Medicine with respect to an airman’s eligibility to hold an airman medical certificate. As such, it is important that if you’ve omitted your receipt of VA disability benefits on your FAA medical application(s), that you consult a FAA aviation attorney as soon as possible.
Call your FAA defense attorney at The Ison Law Firm today to discuss your options for remediating failure to disclose receipt of VA disability benefits on a FAA medical application. There may be a relatively simple solution to an otherwise daunting result. The Pilot Lawyer at The Ison Law Firm is standing by to vector you through legal turbulence!
*Please note that airmen who have been indicted have not been found guilty of the alleged crime(s).