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Medical Certification

Vaccines
The COVID-19 public health emergency has driven extraordinary global efforts to develop an effective and safe vaccine. The vaccines produced by Pfizer and BioNTech, Moderna, and the Janssen Single-Dose COVID-19 vaccine manufactured by Johnson & Johnson, have been made available to the American public under an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). After careful review of available data regarding safety profiles, the FAA Office of Aerospace Medicine (AAM) adopts the following policy as both safe and operationally responsive to this unique situation:

Holders of FAA-issued Airman Medical Certificates or Medical Clearances may receive the Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, or Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine; however, a 48-hour no fly/no safety related duty interval must be observed after each dose.

Individuals holding an Airman Medical Certificate or Medical Clearance should be reminded that they are prohibited from performing flight crewmember duties or air traffic control duties if they do not meet medical certification requirements, including those related to adverse events from medications that render them unable to perform such duties.

AAM will monitor the patient response to each vaccine and may adjust this policy as necessary to ensure aviation safety. Additional vaccines will each be evaluated as EUAs are issued.

Important information about the impact COVID-19 on the enforcement of expiring medical certificates

SFAR 118-1 & 2 Relief amended
Amended SFAR 118-2 Relief extends medical certificate validity period by 2 calendar months from expiration for pilots whose medicals expire October 2020 through January 31, 2021.

Alaska pilots (pilots that reside in or serve as a pilot of an aircraft in Alaska) extends medical validity period by 3 calendar months from expiration for whose medicals expire Oct 2020-Jan 2021.

SFAR 118-1 grants relief to medical certificate privileges that expire from March 31, 2020 through September 30, 2020. This relief extends medical certificates for a maximum of three (3) calendar months. The SFAR does not modify the requirements of §61.53 regarding prohibition on operations during medical deficiency. The specific language for the SFAR can be found at the Federal Register.

If you are able, we continue to encourage airmen to accomplish their regularly required airman medical certificate exam with an FAA AME.

Medical Certificates

Requesting Medical Records

To protect your identity and the release of the correct records, completion of the Medical Records Request Form (PDF) is required to release your medical records. Please mail or fax your completed Request for Airman Medical Records form to:

Federal Aviation Administration
Aerospace Medical Certification Division / AAM-331
CAMI, Building 13
P.O. Box 25082
Oklahoma City, OK 73125-9867

The fax number is (405) 954-9326.

Aviation Medical Examiners

Drug and Alcohol Program

Health & Fitness of Pilots

BasicMed

MedXPress Information for the Pilot

FAA MedXPress is a web application pilots must use to submit their certification applicant information (Items 1 through 20) of the FAA Form 8500-8. Pilots need only a valid email address to create a MedXPress account to use FAA MedXPress. MedXPress is designed to expedite the processing of a pilot's request for certification and shorten the pilot's office visit with the AME.

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This page was originally published at: https://www.faa.gov/licenses_certificates/medical_certification/