Flight surgeon

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A flight surgeon is a military medical officer practicing in the clinical field of aviation medicine, which is also occasionally known as flight surgery.^[1]

Flight surgeons are medical doctors who serve as the primary care physicians for a variety of military aviation personnel, including pilots, Flight Officers, navigators, astronauts, missile combat crews, air traffic controllers, UAV operators and other aircrew members, both officer and enlisted.

Aviation medicine is essentially a form of occupational medicine, and flight surgeons are tasked with the responsibility of maintaining medical standards, especially those that apply to those on flying, controlling or airborne status. In some jurisdictions, such as the U.S military, flight surgeons are trained to fill general public health and occupational and preventive medicine roles, and only infrequently perform surgery in an operating theater sense. Flight surgeons are not required to be rated or licensed pilots. They may be called upon to provide medical consultation as members of an investigation board into a military or aviation or spaceflight mishap. Occasionally, they may serve to provide in-flight care to patients being evacuated via aeromedical evacuation.

The civilian equivalent of the flight surgeon is the Aviation Medical Examiner (AME). Some civilian AMEs have training similar to that of military flight surgeons, and some are retired military and reservist flight surgeons.