About Safe Haven

Safe Haven is a new, separate way for participants to report on, and improve, their health with new confidentiality protections.

The Challenge

Slightly more than half the number of pilots who are having health changes, that could affect their ability to fly safely, let the CAA know.

Pilots – especially commercial pilots – and air traffic controllers are concerned about what making a formal report about a health issue might mean. They're understandably worried about the possibility of any potential downstream impact on their medical, with consequences on their flying, aviation career, family, and business.

Although we know from our own research that 80 percent of pilots who lose their medical get it back, participants understandably have concerns about the results of the reporting process.

A New Approach

Developed together by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and the NZ Airline Pilots' Association (NZALPA), through a specially created Safe Haven Board, the new programme aims to encourage reporting by pilots and air traffic controllers by changing the environment in which they report.

Safe Haven allows participants to raise potential health concerns with a Medical Examiner Safe Haven (MESH), who is empowered to evaluate and manage almost all situations confidentially, without the usual obligations to report details to the CAA Medical Unit. Participants can still report directly to the CAA if they choose to, but many want an initial discussion about their issues in a 'safe' environment – meaning, at a distance from the CAA.

The CAA remains hands-off, and that allows participants to have more control over the process. Medical examiners in some environments (such as airlines or the military) have been able to do something similar for years – working with a pilot or air traffic controller, removing them from flying if necessary, but then working to get them back to flying or working, without necessarily passing on that information to the CAA. With Safe Haven, the CAA is endorsing and expanding this approach, providing protections for individuals who use the programme.

MESHs – Medical Examiners Safe Haven

A medical examiner who's been specially trained to work in the new programme is known as a 'Medical Examiner Safe Haven', or MESH. The new MESHs have special delegations from the Director of Civil Aviation to make decisions about the participants who consult them.

There's no danger of the CAA coming in and riding roughshod over the MESHs' support of their pilots and controllers. This programme aims to build trust between participants and the CAA.

MESHs will first establish if a pilot or controller can keep working or flying. Maybe they can continue, but the MESH might also refer them to a counsellor or psychologist. If a pilot does need to be grounded, the MESH will work with them to get their medical certificate back.

The CAA will know that a pilot has been grounded but won't know the reason why, unless it's in exceptional circumstances – and such circumstances are rare (involving serious or immediate risk). The vast majority of concerns that participants have are temporary and not severe, and won't need to be reported to the CAA.

Comprehensive Support

Safe Haven is a more comprehensive support programme than the current system. Under Safe Haven, MESHs are entrusted to deal with a wide range of matters themselves. Participants are provided with help, and a medical note for time off work as required, but minus the usual obligation for the medical examiner to provide the details to the CAA.

Also, Safe Haven pays most of the costs associated with the simpler cases.

Your Rights

Through Safe Haven, pilots and controllers have the same rights to appeal a decision as they do now. If they want a Convener review or a district court appeal about a decision made under Safe Haven, those rights remain. The only rider is that such an appeal must be made to the CAA.

International Recognition

Participants' lack of trust in the reporting system is not unique to the CAA – it's an issue facing all aviation authorities. An illustration of that is that there are efforts underway with CASA in Australia to adopt a Safe Haven programme, and Transport Canada is also interested in taking it up.