The American Medical Association (AMA) is urging the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to reverse course on its proposed changes to the requirements for commercial airline emergency medical kits, warning that allowing individual airlines to determine their own medical supplies could compromise passenger safety during in-flight emergencies.
In a comment letter to FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford, the AMA expressed strong support for updating the two-decade-old onboard medical kit requirements. The AMA, however, opposes the FAA’s proposal to eliminate federal minimum standards entirely. If enacted, the rule would grant individual airlines broad discretion over what diagnostic tools and medications to carry.
“When a physician steps forward at 30,000 feet to provide medical assistance, passenger safety shouldn’t depend on which airline they happen to be flying,” said AMA President Willie Underwood III, MD, MSc, MPH. “Physicians need a dependable, evidence-based national standard for onboard medical kits. Leaving critical medications such as epinephrine and vital diagnostic tools to the discretion of individual airlines could put patients at unnecessary risk when every second counts. Passengers shouldn’t be asked to take a flier on whether the medical supplies they need will be available.”
The AMA recommended the FAA establish a consistent national standard informed by clinical evidence and the recommendations from the Aerospace Medical Association, which convened a working group to examine emergency medical kits and develop suggested guidelines. The AMA cautioned that leaving these decisions to individual airlines, without a common clinical standard, could result in inconsistent access to medications, diagnostic tools and other equipment when physicians are called on to treat passengers in the air.
The entire letter to the FAA can be read here.
