The 1980 and 1981 accident experience of civil airmen with selected visual pathology

In studies of the 1974-76 accident experience of U.S. general aviation pilots with static physical defects, those with blindness or absence of either eye had significantly increased rates and ratios. A 1979 study found that 1,140 pilots with aphakia and 173 with artificial lens implants had significantly higher rates, but the monocular pilots did not. The present study examined the 1980-81 accident experience of 4,169 monocular pilots, 1,299 with amblyopia, 969 with aphakia, 285 with lens implants, 118 with a history of diplopia, 1,269 with a tropia, 2,601 with hyperphoria greater than 1 diopter, and 2,711 with esophoria or exophoria greater than 6 diopters by class of medical certificate held. The numbers were too small for statistical treatment, but first- and second-class medical certificate holders, who often have more accidents per 1,000 airmen, consistently had progressively lower accident rates per 100,000 hours. Monocular, aphakic, lens implant, and amblyopic accident airmen had higher accident rates than did the total airman population.