The 1976 accident experience of civilian pilots with static physical defects

The 1974 and 1975 aircraft accident experiences of civilian pilots with eight selected static physical defects have been examined and reorted previously. Three categories--blindness or absence of either eye, deficient color vision with a waiver, and deficient distant vision--had significantly more accidents than were expected on the basis of observed-to-expected ratios. In 1975, accident rates were calculated. The rates for air men with blindness or absence of an eye were still found to be significantly higher. Observed-to-expected ratios for 1976 were 1.91 for deficient color vision with a waiver, 1.28 for contact lens users, 1.37 for blindness or absence of either eye, and 1.62 for deficient distant vision. The accident rates per 100,000 h of cumulative and last 6 months' flying experience were significantly greater for contact lens users and monocular pilots than for the active airman population. The other groups had no consistently significant differences.