ALT National Day of Action for Regional Bargaining

ALT AFA Opposes Proposed FAA Emergency Medical Kit Rule, Pushes Congressional Mandate The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) recently proposed relaxing its rules around what items are required in an onboard emergency medical kit (EMK). The FAA’s proposed rule walks back specific item requirements and gives airlines much more discretion in deciding what an EMK should contain. This is contrary to the direction given by Congress in Sec. 367 and 368 of the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2024, which calls for experts to “mandate” EMK content.

ALT The proposed rulemaking ignores expert recommendations that the FAA itself requested. In October 2024, the FAA convened a working group of medical experts and aviation industry stakeholders (including AFA) to review EMK requirements. The FAA did not follow all of the working group's recommendations. Our comments to the FAA read in part: While AFA understands the FAA’s desire to increase operator flexibility in managing the contents of first aid and emergency medical kits, our experience is that this approach undermines safety, creates confusion for medical response teams, and disadvantages carriers who would now carry the burden of determining necessary tools.

ALT The rulemaking is not yet final. In addition to expressing concerns through our comments, we also used this as an opportunity to double down on the working group’s recommendations. We will continue to press the FAA for the tools we need to do our jobs as aviation’s first responders.