Appeal for FAA Certified When You Don’t Meet the Standards

If you receive a final denial of your application for a medical certificate from the FAA or the FAA issues an order of suspension or revocation of your existing medical certificate, you can appeal the decision to the NTSB. Your appeal will be heard by one of the board’s administrative law judges, like the hearing you would receive on appeal of an enforcement case.

If the appeal is from an FAA order suspending or revoking your medical certificate, the FAA has the burden of proving by a preponderance of the evidence that you are not medically qualified. In the case of an FAA denial of your application for medical certificate, however, you have the burden of proving (again, by a preponderance of the evidence), through the sworn in-person testimony of qualified physicians supported by copies of your medical records, that you are qualified. In either case, if you convince the ALJ, the NTSB can order the FAA to issue you a medical certificate or set aside the FAA’s order suspending or revoking your current medical certificate.

From the ALJ, the route of appeal goes to the full board, court of appeals, and Supreme Court under the same procedures described for enforcement cases.

Not all cases of denial, suspension, or revocation of a medical certificate are appropriate for appeal. If you have a history or diagnosis of one of the specific disqualifying conditions, and there is no real question that the history or diagnosis is accurate, appeal to the NTSB is futile. In that situation, the petition for special issuance is the only process by which you can have any hope of obtaining your medical certificate. If, however, the FAA position is based upon an erroneous or a subjective application of the catch-all conditions, an appeal to the NTSB may succeed. If your physicians testify convincingly that your physical condition does not make you an especially risky pilot or that the medication or treatment you are taking is unlikely to interfere with your safe performance in flight, the NTSB may overrule the FAA.