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FAA Bureaucrats Make It Harder For Volunteer Pilots To Help Cancer Patients

The FAA recently announced a policy targeting volunteer pilots who help patients in need — so two nonprofits that facilitate charitable medical flights are taking the agency to court.

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Wings of Mercy is a Michigan-based nonprofit that arranges flights for patients in need. For the past 35 years, its network of volunteer pilots has flown patients from across Michigan to appointments at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, the University of Wisconsin Hospital, and the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. Wings of Mercy does not receive any money from patients or their health insurance; its operations are fully funded by private donors. But the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) won’t let Wings of Mercy reimburse its pilots for out-of-pocket expenses such as gas, oil, or airport fees. Even accepting a free meal at the end of the flight is grounds to suspend the pilot’s license.

What’s more, the FAA recently announced a policy targeting volunteer pilots who help patients in need. Wings of Mercy and the Air Care Alliance, two nonprofits that facilitate charitable medical flights, are taking the FAA to court to protect volunteer pilots. In the process, this litigation challenges deference regimes that give administrative agencies an unfair advantage in court.

Have you ever driven a friend to a doctor’s appointment? Such acts of kindness are common despite a small cost for doing so. But what if the doctor’s office is an hour away? Some of us would refuse gas money but wouldn’t think twice about accepting free lunch from a drive-thru on the way home.

Now consider if the doctor’s office were a few states away, and several appointments were scheduled each month. This is the reality for many patients with cancer, heart disease, and other chronic conditions. Fortunately, there is a nationwide network of pilots who volunteer their time and small airplanes to transport patients in need. Unfortunately, the FAA is stifling the work of these good-hearted volunteers.

The FAA maintains that it wants to keep a strict barrier between personal and commercial flights. That’s not unreasonable in the abstract. According to the FAA, “When........

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