• Korean journal of aerospace and environmental medicine
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.67-71
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• 2019

The health of licence holders (flight crew members and air traffic controllers) is recognized as an important element of aviation safety. The medical emergency symptoms that occur during the flight duty period without prior notice can interfere with human performance capabilities and threaten aviation safety. To prevent this, ICAO has been required to conduct a periodic medical assessment process of licence holders including routine analysis of in-flight incapacitation events and medical findings during medical to identify areas of increased medical risk and continuous reevaluation of the medical assessment process to concentrate on identified areas of increased medical risk. The supply and demand of licence holders have become a major issue due to the increase in air traffic around the world, and the pilot retirement age has been extended to 65 years. But, there is no significant change in the aviation medical assessments process. The follow up of the result of medical examination discovered through aviation medical examination is a very important part, but it has not been properly implemented, and the sick leaves and medical inflight incapacitation reporting system should be improved. The management of health risk factors for licence holders must be implemented to prevent aircraft accidents or aviation safety problems caused by health problems. In this paper, we propose the development plan and concrete improvement plan of the health risk management system of licence holders in Korea in terms of aviation safety.